


Mary-Sue-Gi-Oh! Gathering of the Departed

by sass_bot



Series: Mary-Sue-Gi-Oh! [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Alternate Canon, Dramedy, Gay Original Characters, Gen, Melodrama, Mystery, Original Character Death(s), Original Characters from Alternate Universes, Psychological Drama, Self-Insert, Unreliable Narrator, neurodivergent characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2017-04-18
Packaged: 2018-10-20 13:05:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 42
Words: 163,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10663218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sass_bot/pseuds/sass_bot
Summary: After tripping over her shoelaces and falling to her doom, Lorna finds herself in Domino City. However, when a mysterious voice tells her she has to befriend Yugi Muto and save the world, she knows something fishy is going on -that, and the world is totally screwed.[Repost from Fanfiction.net]





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is something I wrote AAAAAAGES ago on FFN before I started using my AO3 account, but since I've decided (against my better judgement) to write a sequel, I figured I'd post the first part here, and update the sequel both on here and on my FFN account.
> 
> This started as a parody and ended up with a pretty serious mindfuck plot because no matter what I write, someone always has to die. So you will likely see a very sudden descent into madness, with some light humor sprinkled in. Hopefully, it's not too offputting.
> 
> Anyway, i've reposted this exactly as it was on FFN (minus the cringy author's notes) so you will see very inconsistent plot and writing. I don't have enough time or patience to go through it and edit it, at least not right now, so if you've got the stomach for stuff I wrote back when I still wanted to marry Harry Styles, then proceed at your own discretion.

For once in my life, I think it would be splendid if my motherfucking web browser would open in less than the time it takes to say "I hate you" one hundred times. I mean, it's Google -motherfucking- Chrome; it needs to stop acting like Internet Explorer. Alas, here I was, waiting for it to load. This is precisely why I never shut down my laptop for updates; so shit like this doesn't happen.

I sighed and ran my hands through my unruly dark hair and rubbed my face. I was so tired. It was five in the morning and I was sitting in front of my laptop all alone because my phone thought it was a good idea to wake me up at four AM. And I would have smashed my shiny new S3 if my alarm tune hadn't been an Ed Sheeran song. It took me long enough to get myself out of bed, eat, and get in my school uniform, and now I had two hours to kill before I had to catch the bus.

Eventually, the browser decided to open and I opened up my blog and wrote a post complaining about the little bitch that was Google Chrome. Needless to say, not one of my four hundred followers gave a shit. I decided to pass the rest of the time reblogging funny text posts and crying but not actually crying about my favorite TV shows.

I groaned when I realized that it was seven AM. Groggily, I tried smoothing down my hair and putting on my sneakers at the same time. I jogged out of my room, slurring a couple of "Good mornings" to my family members who were finally awake.

"Take care, sweetie!" my mom yelled as I shut the apartment door on my way out.

I rubbed my eyes, which stung either because I was drowsy, or because I kept rubbing them. O _ne, two. One, two._ I chanted as I made myself go down the stairs as quickly as I could.

A headache began to form between my temples and I brought my hand that wasn't rubbing my eyes to massage my head. I guess I should have used the time I spent blogging to get some rest. I just felt like utter crap.

My backpack strap was slipping off my shoulder now. I shrugged, trying to put it back up, but to no avail. Deciding to give my eye-rubbing hand a break, I adjusted the strap.

I don't know when exactly during all this that I missed a step on the staircase, but it must have been near the end and most likely before I tripped on my untied shoe laces. The funny thing is that I didn't really realize I was falling until the very last moment. The whole time, all I could think about was how bad the pain in my head was and how uncomfortable my bag strap felt in the nook of my elbow. It never even crossed my mind that something terrible was happening to me.


	2. What's Domino?

"Hey, are you alright?"

I brought my hand to my eye and began to rub it slowly. _Who was trying to interrupt my beauty sleep? Did I need to bitch slap anyone?_

Slowly, I grew conscious of two things: one, I was sleeping in my school uniform and the pants were uncomfortable as fuck; two, my uniform was getting more messed up the longer I slept and I didn't want to have to change so it was best if I woke up now.

I brought my hands to my sides to clutch at the comforter for support as I sat up in bed; however, my nails only scratched at something hard and dirty.

_What the fuck?_

I pushed myself up into a sitting position anxiously. The sudden brightness irritated my eyes and it dawned on me that it wasn't the sort of _waking up in your room_ brightness, but rather the _staring up at the sun with your naked eye_ brightness, a brightness one could only experience outside, possibly laying down on the pavement in an unfamiliar place with concerned strangers looking down at you.

Upon seeing me awake, one of the strangers knelt down beside me to give me support. "Are you okay?" she asked. "My boyfriend just called the ambulance and they're coming to in a few minutes. Just don't stress yourself, got it?"

I nodded and looked away from the girl to identify my surroundings. It was a useless feat really. I was shit with directions and this place didn't seem remotely familiar to me. Before I realized my lips were moving, I asked the girl, "Where are we?"

In the few seconds it took for her to respond, a million possibilities and scenarios ran through my mind. Did I sleepwalk all the way here? Had I been kidnapped? Who would go to the trouble of kidnapping me anyway? My family wasn't really rich so it was useless to ask for a ransom. I was also a cheesecake away from crossing the borderline between average and overweight so it couldn't have been for my body. Not that there's anything wrong with my body, but I wouldn't say it was up to society's standards and if someone were to go to the trouble of abducting someone from their home, you'd think they'd go for someone who wasn't me. Besides, I didn't really _feel_ traumatized and emotionally and physically scarred.

As I weighed the possibilities in my head, I missed the girl's reply. "I'm sorry, but what did you just say?" I asked, deciding to actually listen this time.

"Domino City Plaza," she repeated slowly.

"The fuck is Domino City Plaza..." I mumbled, beginning to feel a bit feint. Something about that seemed familiar, but my head hurt so much that I couldn't think straight. I was sweating under my light uniform top and I didn't know if it was the pain or the sun, but closing my eyes for a long time was starting to sound good, so I did just that.

* * *

 

A soft beeping sound interrupted my sleep. I groaned and tried to make myself comfortable in my bed.

Wait...

I inhaled as I sat up. Wasn't I outside? I mean the bed was much nicer than the pavement, but...

I was in a recovery room at a hospital. As I looked around, a nurse approached me. She was dressed in a knee length white skirt, a button up shirt, and a hat. She looked like she came out of the forties or something. Since when did nurses anywhere dress like that?

Anyway, that wasn't the point. She walked up to me, holding a clipboard and pen. "Hello," she greeted, "how are you doing? Does your head hurt at all? Any dizziness, nausea?"

"Umm... no, I think I'm okay." I put a hand over my stomach just to be sure. "Where am I?" I asked.

"Domino Hospital," she replied distracted, jotting something down on her clipboard. "Now that you're awake, I'm going to need you to tell me some things, alright?"

"Where's Domino Hospital?" I asked, ignoring her question. I wasn't in my house and I needed to know why. Actually, I was proud of myself for how well I was handling this at the moment.

"In Domino City," the nurse replied uncertainly, like this was something I was supposed to know.

I knew Domino City. I was sure I knew it, but how did I know it?

I turned my attention to the television. _"We are now speaking to the genius behind it all and the CEO of KaibaCorp, Seto Kaiba, who is here to tell us about his revolutionary duel disks."_

"S-Seto Kaiba..." I stuttered, gaping at the screen. "W-What the fuck?"

Domino City. I knew Domino City from Yu-Gi-Oh! I knew Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh. But Yu-Gi-Oh wasn't real, right? It was an anime and a manga and none of it was real. So why did the boy on TV who happened to be named Seto Kaiba look an awful lot like the anime character also coincidentally named Seto Kaiba?

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I looked away from the television and back at the concerned nurse. She was writing something down on her clipboard. "Do you know your name, ma'am?"

"Yeah…" I replied with uncertainty.

"Can you tell me, please?"

"Um, yeah…Lorna." I rubbed the back of my neck and sighed. Great. What if they asked for my address next? You can laugh at me for being seventeen and having no idea what my address was.

"And your last name?" she asked.

"Am I okay?" I countered suddenly.

She looked surprised but answered easily enough. "You have a bit of a concussion. You must've had a bad fall" –

I saw my apartment buildings stairwell flash in front of my eyes in a blur. I felt the familiar sensation of falling and shuddered back to reality, or at least, what seemed to be reality. "I did fall," I told her. "I fell down the stairs… but I didn't fall in Domino City Plaza," I said insistently. "Or anywhere near it," I added, speaking slowly so she would pay attention.

The nurse looked slightly alarmed, but nodded silently. "Can you tell me about your fall?"

I began without missing a beat. "I was going down the stairs in my apartment building and I tripped and fell," I told her, opting to keep out the part about not tying my shoelaces. I mean, she only cared about the fall, so let's not add in those embarrassing little details. "I must've fallen down about one flight of stairs or something. I remember crashing into the railing and… it broke and I remember falling down… and then nothing."

The nurse clutched her clipboard tightly and looked me over. "Are you sure?" she said, looking a bit pale.

Hey, I admit it was a close one, but by some miracle I survived. "Yes…" I confirmed.

"You fell over the railing… how far?" she asked.

"About one story," I told her quickly.

"You must be mistaken."

"Mistaken?"

"Yes," she said, "There is no way you can fall one story and make it out with a bump on your head and a concussion." She quietly contemplated before speaking again. "Do you remember falling on something, or someone?"

I strained myself in thought. I saw the marble on the ground floor of the building and a dull pain in my chest, almost like an echo. "No," I told her, clutching my chest. "I don't remember. I remember just… crashing. I remember my chest hurting and…"

By the time I had finished speaking, the nurse was halfway across the room, heading towards an elderly man who seemed to be a higher ranked doctor. He glanced at me as she spoke to him. He came towards me and smiled gently. "Hello, my name is Dr. Geoff," he said. "You're a very lucky girl surviving a fall like that."

I nodded silently. Tell me about it. "I need to go home. I'm not from Domino City. I have to get out of here."

Dr. Geoff nodded. "I understand. We've contacted the authorities and they're going to help you get home, alright?"

"O-Okay…"

"You can stand, right?" he asked. I nodded. "Good. Your clothes are on the nightstand. I'm going to shut the curtains so you can get yourself changed."

I blushed. The idea of changing like this made me uneasy. I had done it before when I was younger. It wasn't the first time I had gone to the hospital, but I was much younger then. Now I just felt exposed. The curtain was swiftly shut and I dove under the covers with my clothes. If I was going to change, I'd give them as little visibility as possible.

* * *

 

A short trip downtown and several questions later, the police came back to me with skeptic looks on their faces that I had only ever seen on my parents when I was lying. "There are no girls matching your description missing in Arizona. The address that you gave us for your apartment building doesn't exist," a tall cop with a buzz cut told me. I had nicknamed him "Bad Cop" since he hadn't smiled once since I arrived at the station. "Lying to the authorities is a felony, _Lorna._ If that's your _real_ name."

I rolled my eyes. "I admit the name is a bit uncommon, but guys, _come on!_ Why would I lie to you? What would I possibly have to gain from sending the police on a wild goose chase?" _Other than hours of priceless entertainment._ Still though, I was actually telling the truth.

"I'm sorry, Lorna," a second cop said. He was the one I nicknamed "Good Cop" "If you can't cooperate with us, we'll have to let you go." He smiled apologetically. "I can give you a cab fare for your house…"

"No!" I told Good Cop. "I'm telling you I don't live here!"

Good Cop sighed and shook his head. "Try a real address next time," he told me, giving me five dollars. I took the money reluctantly as I was ushered out of the police station.

I looked around. Well, it was the first time I had ever been kicked to the curb in my whole life. Typical to have it happen when I can least afford it –well, not literally as I had enough money to take a cab somewhere, but where could I possibly go?

I heard a car horn and watched a taxi stop in front of me. Taxis stopping for people gratuitously? Something was definitely wrong with this place. The driver stuck his head through the window and called out to me. "Do you need a ride, kid?"

I stumbled over my words, but eventually I spat out a "Yes."

"Hop in," he said, gesturing to the backseat.

Should I trust this guy? Apparently, my body did as it entered the car without even waiting for my brain to reach a conclusion.

"Where to?"

"Um…" I said quietly. I had no idea where to go, but I couldn't stay at the station forever and it was beginning to get dark outside. "Kame Game Shop," I said quickly. "D-Do you know where that is?" I asked meekly. I really hoped he did because I sure as hell didn't.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," the man said and the taxi took off.

Thankfully, the taxi driver didn't try to kidnap me, which was great. I now stood in front of a quaint shop. It said "Game" in large letters at the top and it was unmistakably the same building from the anime. It was still open and I sighed with relief. Being somewhere somewhat familiar made the pressure on my shoulders drop significantly. I was still miles away from home, but I knew this place. I wasn't completely lost.

I began to walk towards the door. The inviting open sign making me walk faster. I was now just a step away. I extended my arm to push the door open when a strong force knocked the wind out of me. I was so close. What was happening to me?

"Lorna." My name echoed in my head, but not in my voice.

 _Who are you?_ I asked.

I couldn't feel anything anymore but a great pressure on my chest. I couldn't help but feel that if that pressure were any greater, it would pierce my ribs and kill me. I imagined my torso exploding and my boobs flying away in aftermath of the blast. It made me chuckle a bit.

"Focus, Lorna," the voice said, sounding a bit exasperated.

 _Sorry,_ I replied. _Ugh, you can tell me your name now._

"That's not important."

_So what the hell do I call you? Almighty voice?_

"If that pleases you," it replied.

_I'll bet being called almighty pleases you. I'll just call you Voice._

Voice was annoyed now. "Call me whatever you want, but listen to me! Do you know how you got here?"

_No, but I'm betting you're about to tell me._

"Lorna, you're in purgatory."

_You mean like Dean from Supernatural?_

"No…" Voice said slowly. "This is a bit different. You have a mission to accomplish."

Mission? What the hell could I possibly do? I couldn't even talk to the cashier at Burger King without help. _What do I have to do?_

I felt the Voice hesitate. "You have to save the world." There was a tiny hint of "Fuck me. How did I get myself into this?" in Voice's tone. It worried me and I had every right to be worried. I had to save the fucking world? I was hardly capable. Talk about tragic overestimation.

 _How do I save the world?_ I asked, sounding a bit nervous. _It would be nice to know what I was saving it from as well…_

"You can learn a great deal from Yugi Muto." The Voice was still unsure, but it didn't seem to be changing its mind anytime soon.

 _Am I dead?_ I asked. _Oh, God. I'm dead, right? I fell off the stairs and cracked my neck! I'm as dead as Dumbledore at the end of the Half-Blood Prince._

"Hey! I didn't get there yet! No spoilers!"

_Seriously? Have you been living under a rock? Snape kills him._

"Stop it!" the Voice screams in anguish. After calming down a bit, it answers my question. "You're not dead, though. You're just really unconscious."

_Like a coma?_

"Precisely."

_But why Yu-Gi-Oh? I haven't read the manga and I haven't even watched the whole anime series either. To be quite frank, if this is some sort of scheme to put me in a fandom that I've always wanted to be in, I don't think you chose the right one._

"Would you rather be in Game of Thrones?"

_On second thought, card games are brilliant! When do we start?_

"I thought so."

 _Well, I just have to ask one more thing._ I felt the Voice waiting. _Am I in the Japanese version or…_

"It's the 4kids version."

_I fucking hate you._

"At least it's not the Singapore version…" its voice began to fade as it said that and the pressure on my chest began to ease.


	3. The Yugi Muto

I felt my vision begin to return and the feeling was returning to my limbs. I was regaining consciousness. "At least it's not the Singapore version…" I mumbled under my breath. I suppose the Voice did spare me the horror of an overuse of "Dude" It wasn't much of a consolation, though.

My hands were at my side, which meant that I had fainted gracefully and landed like that, or someone had carried me off of the cold ground. It appeared to be the latter. My hands felt something like soft cotton and there was a pillow under my head. It wasn't as great as my bed back home, but it was nicer than the hospital bed.

"Grandpa!" someone called out loudly. "She's awake."

I winced. Whoever this was seemed to be more clueless than I was, and that meant that he was pretty clueless. I sat up and looked at the offender. I was struck by the largeness of his hair and the purple-ness of the highlights. I resisted the urge to randomly yell out his name in surprise, and let me tell you, it was a tough struggle.

"How are you doing?" I was asked by none other than Yugi -motherfucking- Muto.

I could hear footsteps on a hollow floor and a second person appeared. "Yugi! Give her some space!" he said, pushing Yugi out of the way and sitting in his place. What was that about giving me space?

"Sorry, Grandpa," Yugi muttered, his fingers went down to play with the chain holding his millennium puzzle. To be quite honest, I was a dumbass to not have seen it until then, but I was too distracted by Yugi's hair to look at his accessories.

The old man pushed my shoulders gently, easing me back down onto the bed and I offered little resistance. "You need to rest," he told me. "You had quite a fall outside of my shop. Too bad the guy that found you couldn't see you wake up!" He threw his head back laughing.

"Who found me?" I asked. I was surprised at how weak my voice sounded.

"Oh, it was one of my grandson's friends. He carried you all the way up here." Solomon chuckled and raised his eyebrows suggestively.

I hadn't been awake for five minutes and this man is already trying to fix me up with Tristan.

_Why Tristan?_ you ask?

Because who else makes a habit of carrying unconscious people around in this godforsaken show?

However, my only request was that if I was going to be a self-insert, could I at least be paired with someone who _wasn't_ Tristan? Please and thank you.

Yugi seemed oblivious to his grandfather's suggestiveness –not that his grandfather was suggestive in any way. I simply used suggestive in a way to imply that he was being suggestive through his intentions, which suggest things going on between me and someone who isn't Yugi's grandfather. I was not using it to imply that Solomon Muto was attracting me in any way. Stop it, you fucking assholes.

"Are you okay?" Grandpa asked in concern. "Your face is heating up!"

I nodded in embarrassment. This was not the time to be talking to my imaginary friends.

He got to his feet. "Well, I'm going to go get some tea for you. Yugi will keep you company." He left the room and shut the door behind him.

It only then dawned on me that I was in Yugi's bed. Somehow, I didn't think there was anything wrong with that. It may have been because I didn't take Yugi seriously, which sounds terrible, but he was really adorable and if you could see him in real life it was like he wasn't even in high school. They don't make them this adorable anymore.

"I don't really need to stay in bed, right?" I asked Yugi. I was beginning to feel really hot under the covers and I needed a breeze.

Yugi shook his head. "Nah, my grandpa was just a bit worried, but if you think you're alright, then I guess you are."

I smiled gratefully and got out of bed. I sat at the edge of the bed and Yugi followed suit. "So… you're Yugi?" I asked, trying to sound casual. Of course he was Yugi. Why wouldn't he be Yugi? He was _the_ Yugi. You can't get more Yugi than that.

"Yeah," he replied. "What's your name?"

"Lorna," I said, smiling slightly. _Idiot! You could have given yourself a really cool Mary Sue name like Yvette Blackthorne or something and nobody would have thought twice about it. Now you're stuck in Yu-Gi-Oh land, you can't duel and your name is motherfucking Lorna! You motherfucking idiot!_

"That's a really cool name!" he said enthusiastically.

"Really? Thanks!" I said, feeling my cheeks heat up a bit. Most people just called my name a grandma name. Nobody really ever thought it was cool.

"Really!" Yugi affirmed with the same enthusiasm. "I've never heard it before. Were you named for something special?"

"Um…" I began. "I guess. I was named after some girl in a novel or something. My parents were big literature buffs and thought it was a totally good idea to scar their only daughter for life."

Yugi frowned for a bit then his face lit up again. It was like watching a puppy make a tough decision. "You shouldn't listen to what anyone else says. People only like your name if you like your name. It's your confidence that forms other peoples' opinions on you."

I didn't know if it would be appropriate to hug Yugi at that moment, so I opted to look down at my feet. A nervous feeling ate at me as we sat in silence. When were they going to ask about my parents? What would they do when they found out that I couldn't go home? What would I tell them? I could see this going down like it did in every Self-Insert Fanfic ever. I would lie about my origins and end up in an embarrassing confrontation where everyone and their mother realizes that I'm a fucking piece of shit liar and is never to be trusted again. At least, that's how it went in most fanfics.

"So where do you live, Lorna?" Yugi asked innocently. His hand went down to fiddle with his millennium puzzle again. He sure did that a lot. Was that in the anime as well? I didn't remember him doing it all that often.

"Nowhere," I said quickly, maybe a bit too quickly. "I don't live anywhere." He looked at me in confusion. "I-I'm an orphan," I stuttered, looking away from him. I hoped he would buy that pile of crap I just tried to sell him. To my surprise, he seemed to be taking every word I spoke entirely seriously.

Sometime right about now, Yugi was supposed to offer me a place to stay. That's how it happened in all the fanfics. I glanced at the boy beside me. He had a strange glimmer in his eye, like a strong will to do something, but he also looked a bit conflicted like he was in the middle of an important conversation. Finally, he looked at me with his usual bright smile. "Do you wanna stay here with me and my grandpa and my mom?" I fucking called it!

The offer seemed too good to be true. Did Yugi really think just inviting a random girl to live with his family was a good idea? In spite of that, I still couldn't hold in my excitement. "Are you sure that's okay?" I asked.

He nodded. "My mom wouldn't mind another girl in the house," he said with a chuckle. He jumped to his feet. "Let me just go ask my grandpa! Stay right here!" _There isn't really anywhere else for me to go..._ He ran out of the room in hurry.

I waited a few minutes for Yugi to come back then I heard a soft knock on the door. Without waiting for a response, a small woman entered the room with a tray of tea. Everything about her was soft, from the way she walked to the way she said her "Hello." She was definitely Yugi's mother. I thought this was the 4kids dub where Yugi's parents didn't exist.

The woman took me over to a spare room. Why was it that people always had spare rooms? My house didn't have a spare room. I decided not to question it too much. I mean, I was in a coma. A suspiciously convenient spare room was the least of my worries.

"It's a bit small," she said, stepping inside the room which had no walking space due to the bed and the chest of drawers which were painstakingly stuffed in there. "We never expected to use this room so I hope you don't mind." She smiled kindly and put the tray she was holding on the chest.

"Don't worry about it. This is definitely more than enough for me. You're really kind to let me stay here." True, the room was miniscule, but it was cozy and I didn't think I would mind staying in it at all. Thankfully, I wasn't the claustrophobic type.

"Hi, mom!" Yugi exclaimed as he appeared behind his mother. He looked absolutely over the moon. Was this all because I was staying over? I didn't remember him being this easy to please.

He almost plowed past his mother and took one of the cups of tea. "This is for you. It's grandpa's famous black tea." His grandpa had famous black tea? I raised an eyebrow. There were so many things in this world that weren't in the anime. I needed to keep my eyes open. I had a lot to learn about this place.

I took the steaming cup from his hands. It smelled heavenly. I just realized how hungry I was. It was quite early in the morning when I had my breakfast and subsequently fell to my doom in my apartment building stairwell and I hadn't eaten anything since I came here. I was starving.  
As I stood next to Yugi, I soon learned something else that was quite new. His face was at eye level for me and that could only mean one thing; I was as short as Yugi Muto. I mean, I knew I was short, but I didn't think I was that short. Hopefully, this didn't mean that all of Yugi's friends were giants compared to me.

"If you guys need anything, I'll be in the living room, alright?" Yugi's mother said, turning around. "And don't go to sleep too late." She briskly walked away.

"Do you know a game called Duel Monsters?" Yugi asked immediately after his mother left the room.

I grinned. Now we're talking! "Definitely."

That was how the rest of the evening started. I built myself a pretty nice Light monster deck that only existed in my dreams. Grandpa would probably make me pay him back for the cards, but I decided not to worry about that. I spent my time trying to beat Yugi in a duel, but y'all know how impossible that is. Still, he was more than happy to give me a few pointers and by the end of the night I felt a bit better about myself and perhaps even a bit more skilled at dueling.

* * *

 

The next morning I woke up to a quiet knock on my door, one if Mrs. Muto's trademarks. "Wake up, Lorna. Breakfast is ready."

I felt a low grumble of anticipation in my gut. I didn't eat much yesterday. I had forgotten my hunger while I was dueling, but now it was the only thing on my mind. I needed to eat.

I leapt out if bed, dressed in one of Mrs. Muto's pajamas. It fit me perfectly. For once, my shortness was helping me out.

When I arrived at the kitchen, Yugi and his grandpa were already digging into their eggs. I felt my stomach lurch again. I needed that food inside me. I took the empty seat next to Yugi and began to eat.

"I'm meeting my friend Joey in a few minutes," Yugi told me after breakfast. "He's also a great duelist!"

I strained my mind to remember what part of the series this was. If Joey was a great duelist, then this was obviously after Duelist Kingdom. I mean, Joey sucked before that. I also remembered the interview I saw on TV at the hospital. Kaiba was talking about his new Duel Disks. This was the beginning of the Battle City arc.

"We're gonna be competing in a huge tournament soon so we're gonna be practicing together," he continued. Yep. Definitely Battle City. "Do you want to come?" he asked.

I started to say "Yes" then I remembered that I wasn't staying at this place for free. I couldn't just waltz around and adventure with Yugi when I had chores to do. "I can't go," I told him, smiling apologetically. "I have to help out your mom and your grandpa in the shop."

Yugi frowned and looked over at the doorway leading to the shop part of his house for a moment. "I've got an idea!" he said suddenly. "Why don't I have Joey come over here? He'd love to meet you! And we'll keep you company while you finish up your chores!"

I smiled. Yugi was being really mindful of me. No wonder everyone liked him so much. "I'd like to see an epic match between two great duelists. That sounds great," I said. I couldn't hide my smile.


	4. And the Winner is...

"Aww man! I keep losing!"

I giggled as I wiped a shelf. When Joey arrived, Yugi wasted no time introducing us. To my great relief, the height difference between us wasn't as great as I had anticipated and yes, he was more adorable in real life. He and Yugi had been dueling for an hour as I cleaned each individual shelf and object in the store. I didn't mind the hard work much. I was enjoying myself, listening to the boys duel behind me.

"Hey! Hey! Cut it out!" the blonde snapped at me. I laughed louder to spite him. "I bet I could beat you in a duel any day!" he challenged with a smirk. I looked away from him and got started on putting back the merchandise I had removed from the shelf earlier. "How about it? You and me!" he declared.

Without looking back at him I replied, "Can't. I've got chores to do. Grandpa would kill me if he found me slacking off."

I heard Joey snigger. "That's chicken talk. I bet you're too scared to take on the Duelist Kingdom runner up!"

"You think _I'm_ afraid of dueling _you_?" I asked, trying not to let my competitive side take over. What would I give to kick Joey's ass at dueling? After several humiliating defeats in Power of Chaos? Well, just about anything, but I still had responsibilities and I didn't want Yugi's grandpa to kick me out. "You're just not worth my time, Joey."

"Oh, really?" he shot back. It was hilarious listening to Joey get fired up like this.

Yugi stepped in to simmer things down. "You can duel her another time, Joey. She really does have to finish up her chores though. And Grandpa would kill me, too, if I distracted her."

"Well, I'm sure Gramps wouldn't mind if we helped out a bit." A new voice came from behind me and I placed the last _Axe Raider_ figurine on the shelf before turning around to see the newcomers.

"Tristan! Téa!" Yugi greeted happily. "How are you guys?"

"Great! We came to watch you guys practice," Téa said, setting her handbag on the cashier's desk.

"Yeah," Tristan added, "and we woulda been here sooner if Téa didn't go shopping first."

Téa's eye twitched. "Well, you're the one that took too long to carry my bags to my house."

"You're the one that had too many bags!" Tristan complained, rubbing his arms.

Ignoring him, Téa came over to me. "Hey, you're that girl from yesterday!"

I nodded and gave her my hand. "I'm Lorna."

"She's staying with me right now because she doesn't have a place to go." I smiled as Yugi fed them my lie. "Lorna," he said, "These are my friends, Téa and Tristan."

"It's nice to meet you guys," I told them.

"Well, if we're gonna help Lorna get this place cleaned up, then we're gonna have to get started!" Tristan announced, running his finger down one of the shelves I hadn't gotten to yet. "Look at that dust! This place needs some serious cleaning."

Joey sniffed the air around him, reminding me a bit of a dog. "Tristan's got a point. You guys ready for some chores?" The other three chimed in with a loud "Yes!" If there were a Barney show for teenagers, this would probably be it. I really hoped they wouldn't burst into their rendition of the _Clean-up Song_.

"You guys don't really have to..." I tried to say half-heartedly.

Yugi heard my statement and smiled to reassure me. "You're our friend and we can't just sit around and goof off while you work hard!"

"I'm your friend?" I asked, feeling a bit unsure.

Yugi nodded enthusiastically. "You are if you want to be."

Being around these guys was giving me warm, fluffy friendship feelings. I had never really felt that way before. Maybe being in a coma wasn't too bad, but I swear to God, if these kids started to sing the _I Love You Song_ , I would be 9000% done with them. I smiled at him and said, "We should get to work. We can't let Téa, Tristan and Joey do all the work!"

I saw Yugi's eyes light up warmly. "Alright!"

* * *

 

So, I didn't know when exactly my life turned into the happy friendship sparkle show and how I got strung along, but I had heard the words "Together" and "Friends" way too many times in one day and by the time the five of us were done cleaning up the game shop, I began to regain my senses and realize that I was never the type of person who was good with feelings. You could get an overdose of feelings with this crowd, and that was what almost drove me insane.

Fortunately, the cleanup was over. Unfortunately, Joey was now calling my bluff and wanted an actual duel with me. Somehow, I doubted I would be able to really beat him at duel monsters. Well, I could, if he underestimated me, but let's be real here; how low would his opinion of me as a duelist have to be for it to officially count as underestimation? I'd say fifty leagues under the sea. If you have any lower guesses, please go ahead and place them. I didn't deserve the deck that Yugi helped me put together.

"I'm actually looking forward to seeing how this will go," Tristan said, taking a seat around the table that Joey and Yugi had set up for their dueling.

"I'm not…" I sputtered with a nervous giggle as Yugi ushered me into the seat that he had been sitting in earlier.

Joey smirked as he took a seat opposite of me. "So you really are all talk?"

"Yep. One hundred percent liar. No dueling talent at all," I said quickly, watching as Yugi placed my deck on the table. He was really excited about this and I was totally going to disappoint him.

He gave me a warm, reassuring smile. "Don't say that, Lorna. I'm sure you'll do fine. You're better than you think!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Yugi," I told him as Joey and I began to shuffle our decks.

Joey went first, summoning an _Axe Raider_ in attack mode. At 1700 attack points, _Axe Raider_ was pretty strong. I just hoped I'd draw some good cards or I'd get my ass kicked by a four star monster. That wouldn't really be my crowning moment of glory. "Your move," he said with a smirk. He seemed very cocky; possibly cockier than he was in the TV show.

I drew my first five cards and looked them over. I tried not to grin too obviously at my hand. I set a facedown monster – _Jenis, Lightsworn Mender_ with 300 attack points and 2100 defense. It wasn't the best card I had, but its defense was strong enough to ward off Joey's monsters for a while. I smiled maliciously at the _Ookazi_ card in my hand and activated it.

"Didn't think I'd be the first one to lose life points," Joey grumbled and glowered at my card as I moved it to my empty graveyard pile.

"It's just 800 life points Joey. This duel's just getting started," I told him, trying not to giggle impishly because I doubted it would sound cute.

"Hey! Don't get cocky!" _Look who's talking._ I rolled my eyes. "It's my turn now!"

He drew a card and frowned slightly. Then he took a card out of his hand and activated it. "I activate _Pot of Greed_! Now I get to draw two more cards." He set a facedown card and summoned _Rocket Warrior._ It had 1500 attack. It was still too weak to make a dent in my _Jenis's_ defense. "Alright! _Rocket Warrior_! Attack her facedown monster!"

I flipped my card face up and stuck my tongue out. "Not so fast, Joey. My _Jenis, Lightsworn Mender_ has 2100 defense points. You know what that means!"

"What!" he cried incredulously. He growled. "Yeah, well, I activate my spell card! _Graceful Dice_!"

Yugi grabbed a dice from his grandfather's table. Needless to say, this tabletop dueling was probably much less exciting than the hologram-based dueling those guys were used to. He rolled the dice. I watched the humorous expression on Joey's face as he rooted for a two or higher. As hilarious as that was, I knew that there was a high chance that I was about to take some serious damage.

"Alright! I got a three! My _Rocket Warrior's_ attack triples!" he yelped in excitement and smiled deviously as he watched my expression darken. My _Jenis_ was done for! He didn't hesitate to attack and I grabbed her card and put it in my graveyard, sulking. He chuckled. "Now it's time for my _Axe Raider_ to take a huge chunk outta your life points!"

**Joey: 3200**

**Lorna: 2300**

I glared miserably at the smirk on his face. "Yeah, yeah. This duel's not over yet!" I reminded him.

I sighed as I drew a _Binding Chain_ with 1100 defense and even less attack points. However, I still had _Shining Abyss_ in my hand. It may have had 100 less attack points less than _Axe Raider_ , but it still had more than enough defense. Maybe my luck would change in the next turn –but then again, maybe not. I decided to set _Shining Abyss_ and activate my facedown card _Gift of the Mystical Elf_ , which gave me 300 life points for every monster I controlled and raised me up to 2600 life points. It wasn't much, but I had to get some life points back.

Joey drew a card and grinned evilly. He was doing that a lot. I was really failing miserably at this duel. He glanced at his hand and then back at me. "Come on!" I cried. "What are you waiting for?"

"I'm thinking about whether or not to mop the floor with you now, or let you suffer a bit."

I glared. "Get on with it, Joey."

"Nah! I got a tournament to get ready for! So I'm gonna end this quickly."

I rolled my eyes. "Can you just get on with it?" I told him impatiently.

"Geez! Fine!" he exclaimed. "I sacrifice my two monsters to summon my _Red-Eyes Black Dragon_!" Well, I was screwed. " _Red-Eyes_ , attack her facedown monster!"

I grumbled miserably and placed my _Shining_ _Abyss_ in the graveyard. At least it was in defense mode so I wouldn't lose lifepoints. However, it was still gonna be tough getting rid of that _Red-Eyes._ A hilarious thought popped up in my head. What if I believed in the heart of the cards? I almost sniggered. _Oh! Heart of the cards! Guide me!_ With that thought in mind, I drew a card.

I had to do a double take to make sure I wasn't imagining things. I had just drawn _Mirror Force_. That was probably the luckiest draw I had ever drawn in my whole entire life, which wasn't saying much since I was a generally unlucky person anyway.

_I am so sorry, Heart of the cards. I will never doubt you again._

Keeping a good poker face up, I set the card down and set down my _Binding Chain_ in defense mode. "I'm done now. Your turn."

No matter how much I boast about my flawless poker face, Joey definitely seemed wary of my trap card. I probably should have been a bit more careful about hiding my face when I drew it, especially since I was on the verge of laughing out loud about believing in the heart of the cards, which turned out to be serious business apparently.

I saw him look at my _Mirror Force_ and set a facedown card. He didn't look like he was going to attack anytime soon. He closed his eyes and smiled. "You get to live another day, Lorna. Congrats." His eyes opened again, full of fire. "Your turn."

"Fine," I mumbled with a glare and drew a card. I first decided to activate the _Soul of the Pure_ which I had just drawn, giving me an extra 800 life points. I began to contemplate summoning the _Agent of Judgment._ It was the only card in my hand at that moment and it had been in my hand from the first draw. It required one sacrifice and it was just as strong as Joey's _Red-Eyes._ Then I began to eye his facedown card. If it was a trap card, it could possibly destroy my card. "I end my turn," I said after doing absolutely nothing.

**Joey: 3200**

**Lorna: 3400**

Joey drew his next card and stared intently at his hand before making his move. "I think I'll have my _Red-Eyes_ destroy that facedown monster."

"Careful, Joey," Yugi warned from the sidelines.

"Not so fast!" I exclaimed, flipping up my trap card.

Joey grimaced. "I shoulda known." He placed his dragon in the graveyard. However, he didn't seem as beat up about the loss as one would think and he _did_ fall way too easily into my trap. Was he up to something? Still, whatever he was planning, his lifepoints still went all the way down to 1800 and that was definitely good for me. Plus, I still had one monster on the field so I could summon my _Agent of Judgment._

When I was lost in thought, I missed out on Joey activating a magic card from his hand. I looked up to see _Monster Reborn_ in the graveyard and a very alive _Red-Eyes Black Dragon._ No wonder he was so eager to activate my trap. He knew he could bring back his monster anyway.

I sighed and drew a card. _Monster Reborn_? Seriously? Well, that was useless –or was it? I glanced over at Joey's graveyard. He didn't exactly have the wrong idea when he killed his _Red-_ Eyes then brought it back. My _Agent of Judgment_ and his _Red-Eyes_ were evenly matched, too, so if his facedown card _wasn't_ a trap, then I'd be killing his _Red-Eyes._

I decided to sacrifice _Binding Chain_ to bring out _Agent of Judgment_ – _Saturn._ Joey raised his eyebrows. "And what are you gonna do with that? It's not stronger than my _Red-Eyes._ "

"I know," I told him. "But I'm attacking your _Red-Eyes_ anyway!"

He smirked. "Well, tough luck!" he told me, flipping over his trap card. It was _Chasm of Spikes._ I waited for him to explain it. "Now, your attack is cancelled and your _Agent of Judgment_ goes straight to the graveyard –along with 600 of your life points!" I frowned. My life points were back under 3000 again.

**Joey: 1800**

**Lorna: 2800**

I bit my lip and pulled out my own _Monster Reborn._ "Well, my _Agent_ 's not gone for good!"

"Y'know," Joey said with a grin. "They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

"Yeah, yeah, just make your move!" I told him, narrowing my eyes.

Téa giggled and said, "Look at those two going at it!"

Yugi smiled. "Yeah, they're really alike, aren't they?"

Téa nodded. "Mhm. It's almost like watching the same person duel himself," she quipped, knowing her remark would get to at least one of us.

"Hey!" Joey snapped, waving his fist around in outrage. "I can hear you two! Don't compare me to a girl!" And Téa was right.

I narrowed my eyes at that comment. "What's wrong, Joey? You should be honored to be compared to someone like me," I told him, flicking my hair behind my shoulder.

"Just make your move already!" I reminded him.

He drew a card from his deck and glanced at his hand. "Your _Agent of Judgment_ is pretty strong," he told me.

"Yeah, so?"

"It's got a fatal flaw though," he said.

I cocked my head to the side in confusion. "What?" I looked over at my monster. _Oh, no._ I knew exactly what Joey meant by "fatal flaw". _That fuckface had better not be thinking what I think he's thinking._

"Say, Yug'," I heard Tristan say from beside me. "What's Joey talking about?"

Yugi seemed to have caught on to what Joey was planning. "Her monster may have high attack points, but its defense points are zero."

"I activate my _Shield and Sword_!" Joey announced. My monster's attack just went down to zero! "And that's not all!" he added. "I'm gonna activate _Graverobber_ to take the _Monster Reborn_ in your graveyard so I can bring back my _Axe Raider._ And since my _Axe Raider_ was special summoned after I activated _Shield and Sword_ , he still has 1700 attack points." _Ugh, just put me out of my misery now!_

I ran a hand through my hair and murmured. "I told you guys I suck at this game." But do they listen to me? _Nooooooo._ They just have to be decent people who believe in me no matter how low my self-esteem is. Unforgivable.

"Hey! Keep your chin up!" Joey told me with a big smile. "You weren't half bad!"

"Yeah," Téa added. "You did really well against Joey." I looked over at the spectators. All three of them gave me encouraging nods.

"We oughta have a rematch later, after you've practiced some more," Joey said. "You just might beat me next time."

I couldn't help but smile. It was nice to see that he wasn't rubbing it in my face. "I look forward to it!" I replied.

"Alright, then," Tristan announced, "All this dueling is makin' me hungry! Who's up for some pizza?"

"Ooh! Me! Me! _Me_!" I exclaimed, raising my hand like an excited child. What can I say? I was a girl with a taste for pizza with extra cheese and everything on top.


	5. Lies and Truth

If Yugi and Joey were meant to be dueling, it was obvious that nobody remembered. The pizza was Tristan's treat, which meant that it was free, making it taste _that_ much better. I _tried_ not to eat too much in front of my new friends. I mean, it was too early for them to realize how much of a glutton I was. However, I emphasize on _tried_ because I ate a whole pizza single-handedly. It made me self-conscious to see Téa eat a modest three slices. Oh, well… at least I wasn't the only one with a large appetite. The boys ate just as much as I did, making me feel a bit better.

I confess I didn't quite know what to expect when hanging out with Yugi and the gang. I had a fleeting anxious thought that I would end up watching them talk together about stuff I didn't know about and be completely left out. I was surprised however, to find that they took every opportunity they could to ask me about myself and what I liked to do. It sucked that I had to lie about most of the stuff. I _was_ an "orphan" after all.

"Did you know who they were?" Joey asked as he and Yugi shuffled each other's decks. They were done with their break and were dueling again. Téa, Tristan and I were sitting on the ground around them.

"What do you mean?" I asked, twirling a lock of my hair between my fingers.

"Your mom and dad," he replied softly.

I felt my gut sink. "I did," I told him. Of course I did. I lived with them up until a couple of days ago. I could feel my voice shake. I really, _really_ didn't like lying.

I saw him give me a sympathetic glance and felt Téa's slender hand rest on my shoulder. They must have mistaken my anxiety for sorrow. The lump in my throat grew. "It must be hard."

I gave him a miserable look. I didn't want him to keep talking. "It is…" The words came out of my mouth as a barely audible whisper. I was never good at lying. Eventually, my voice would be gone completely and I would only be able to either nod or shake my head in response to their questions.

"How old were you?" Joey, you need to shut the fuck up or I will cry.

I felt my heart thudding against my ribcage and shot to my feet. "I'm sorry," I said; or at least I tried to speak as I dashed out of the room, but my throat was dry and nothing would come out of my mouth except for a dry, raspy wheeze. I decided to run to my room and shut the door behind me. Luckily, the door had a lock.

As I sat down at the edge of my bed, I hugged my shoulders and tried to control my breathing. Why did I have to panic like that? Why did I have to run away? _Stupid! Stupid Lorna!_ I could feel myself shuddering. I hated being so socially inept that I had to curl up in a ball and cry every time I told a lie. I mean, _normal_ people could handle one or two or three small lies and yet _I_ had to be incapacitated.

_Great. Here come the waterworks!_ I thought wretchedly as my eyes began to water. I shut them tightly, trying not to cry, but somehow, that made things worse. I choked out a sob and stuffed half of my fist into my mouth to prevent any other sobs from emerging.

Isn't that the most pathetic thing you've ever seen?

I just hated myself for being such a crybaby. And to make matters worse, Mrs. Muto hadn't given me a tissue box for my room yet. And while I wasn't exactly opposed to wiping my nose with my sleeve, I wasn't going to contaminate the clothes I had been so kindly given. In the end I simply held my hand over under my nose to prevent it from becoming even worse.

Three dull knocks interrupted my thoughts. I didn't say anything and simply waited for whoever was at the door to speak up. "Lorna, are you in there?" It was Téa.

I stumbled over to the door and contemplated whether or not to open it for her. What exactly would I say to her? Chances were that they thought the memory of my "deceased" parents had caused me to run off and cry, but if I dragged on my lie anymore, I would have another panic attack and if I didn't, how exactly would I explain to her why I was lying to begin with? I told the truth to the doctors and they thought I was insane. I told the truth to the police and they kicked me out into the street. Telling the truth wasn't exactly getting me far in this place.

Against my own instincts, I unlocked the door and let Téa in. Thankfully, she was alone. I didn't exactly know how I could handle all four of them bugging me to know why I was sobbing. I also wasn't very good with crying in front of boys.

Téa closed the door behind herself and sat at the edge of my bed where I had scurried moments after I had let her in. I saw her fish in her pocket for something and pull out a couple of tissues. "Here," she told me, handing them to me. I took them gratefully and wiped my nose, blowing it softly and trying not to sound really gross.

"I smacked Joey for you," she told me. "He shouldn't have forced you to talk about your parents like that… I know it must be tough and I just want you to know that if you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to." She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and I found myself leaning into her. There was something very comforting about having Téa around. She had sort of a kindly aura surrounding her and I began to wonder why Yu-Gi-Oh fangirls even hated her in the first place.

"They're not dead," I muttered, gripping my pants tightly and waiting for her response.

"What?" Her voice sounded like she had been caught off-guard and I felt my stomach hurt at the thought of her finding out that I was lying.

I eased myself out of her grip and watched her expression change slowly into one of realization. "My parents aren't dead," I repeated. _Next time on the Totally Melodramatic Lorna Show…_ "But I think, I might be…" Hey, it was _kinda_ true, and I was trying to make a point.

Téa's face twisted into suspicion and then concern. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm not from here," I said.

"Not from Domino City?" she asked, but I could tell that she was already considering different meanings of my statement in her mind. She already knew about the Millennium items and ancient Egypt so my situation probably wasn't too far-fetched to her. After a moment, she spoke again. "You're from another realm?"

This girl was a lot smarter than I had originally given her credit for. "I am… sort of," I replied, feeling a bit better since I had told the truth, but also feeling sick since I didn't know how everyone would take this news. "I went into a coma in my world and now I'm in your world. I still don't know much about why I'm here, but I know I have to do something important and I was supposed to learn something from Yugi. I don't know what that is yet either."

"This has something to do with the Millennium items, doesn't it?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know yet."

"Is your world some sort of parallel universe?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know that either, but it looks like it." As an afterthought, I said, "We don't have duel monsters in my world though…" Wait, that was wrong. "Well, I mean, we do, but it's not as popular… and it's sorta based on a show called Yu-Gi-Oh." I clasped my hands over my mouth. I certainly wasn't planning on telling her _that_ much. Right, so this is the taboo part, telling them that they were all an anime. Good luck, Lorna.

Téa seemed unsure of what to make of this information, but I was pretty sure it had clicked in her mind what the connection between Yugi and Yu-Gi-Oh was. "You have to tell Yami," she said immediately.

"Do I have to?" I asked. I confess I really wasn't feeling up to meeting Yami. I mean, he wasn't exactly the nicest guy on the block, considering all that twisted shit he did in Season Zero.

She nodded then said, "So my guess was right! You _do_ know who Yami is!" This smart Téa was gonna need some getting used to.

I nodded silently in response, putting the two of us in a bit of an awkward silence as we were both at a loss for what to say in this situation. I mean, it's not everyday that you end up in another dimension and have to break the news to everyone. And it's not everyday that you meet someone from another dimension either.

"Listen, Lorna," she finally said. "Nobody's gonna be mad at you for keeping this from us. I kinda get where you're coming from. I mean, you have no idea whether we'll believe you or not and so you lie to us, but you have to understand that, even though we just met you, we're your friends and we're here to support you no matter where you come from or how you got here."

"Thanks, Téa," I said quietly. She pulled me into another hug and we stayed like that for a moment before the taller girl pulled away.

And _that_ , ladies and gentlemen, is how I got my first friendship speech.

"Why don't you go wash off your face," she told me. "I'll go tell Joey and Tristan what you just told me and I'll send Yugi over here so you can tell Yami yourself, okay?"

I nodded. I felt like the only Yu-Gi-Oh fangirl who shuddered at the thought of meeting Yami. He just scared me, alright? He may have been sexy in the anime, but so was Yami Bakura and I was not looking forward to meeting _that_ asshole either.

My bathroom break was fifty percent washing up and nine thousand percent panicking because I had no idea what I was going to say to Yami. Then I spent a good minute feeling awful since I was taking too long and that was probably going to irritate Yami too. Where was that mysterious voice now? I bet it was beginning to regret its decision to nominate me for the role of saving the world. I couldn't even speak to the spirit of a dead fifteen year-old kid without quaking in my boots.

Eventually I sucked it up and went back to my little spare room. Just as Téa had told me, Yugi was sitting on the bed, waiting for me. Wow, that sounds bad out of context. Anyway, I saw him look up when I approached. I examined his face. He didn't look at all different from the Yugi I knew, but somehow, I knew it wasn't him. It was the way he sat with his back as straight as a board. The violet eyes that stared into my own had such an intensity that I would never associate with the very pure Yugi.

"A-are you Yami?" I aksed him meekly, shutting the door only so I could lean against it. I noted that his fingers were interlaced over his knee, unlike Yugi, whose hands were constantly messing with his puzzle's chain.

I saw the boy nod. "I am." It was strange to hear him speak for the first time. I knew he was Yami, but he sounded so much like Yugi. I knew they were both voiced by Dan Green, but you'd think there would be distinct differences between their voices. Maybe I was just hearing what everyone else in this universe heard when Yami spoke. Most people couldn't tell the difference between Yugi and Yami and the same was going to happen to me if I let my guard down around them… or him… or… Whatever.

"I'm sorry," I squeaked, looking down at my feet nervously. "I lied to you…"

"I know," he replied calmly.

"Yeah, Téa told you… right."

"No," he said. "I've known the whole time."

I raised my head abruptly, hurting my neck in the process. "What do you mean?" _Ouch._ Well, at least my aching neck could help me take my mind off of my nerves… Nah, probably not.

I saw his eyes light up in amusement. Well, at least someone was enjoying himself. "You're a terrible liar."

I sighed and moved towards the bed, deciding to give in and sit beside him. He didn't look like he was going to mind crush me anytime soon, so that was good. "I kinda saw that coming," I replied to his statement. It was true. I couldn't lie for shit, which was half of the reason why it made me so anxious. Conversely, it was probably my anxiety that made me a bad liar to begin with.

"However, I also knew from the moment I saw you that your arrival wasn't an accident," he said.

"Huh?"

"Your aura," he replied simply. "Yugi cannot sense it, but I can." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. _Great! I have an aura, too?_ "You don't mean Yugi any harm," he stated.

"N-no, of course not!" I replied. "I'm supposed to help you. I don't know how yet, but a mysterious voice told me to…" I trailed off. It didn't sound very convincing when I said it out loud, but if I couldn't trust good ol' Voice, who could I trust?

Yami nodded silently. Perfect. Another awkward silence. I glanced over at Yami. He seemed deep in thought. His gaze was pointed at a random spot on the floor and his legs were now crossed. I didn't want to interrupt his thoughts so I turned my gaze away from him and began to twiddle my fingers in my lap.

"Y-Yami?" I decided to call out as the silence was grating on my nerves. He looked up at me and my heart skipped a beat. Another thing to add to the list of things that I would need to get used to around here was Yami's intense stare. _Maybe I can get him to stop that when I become his friend._ "You'll help me find out my purpose, right?" I asked, trying not to flinch away from his gaze.

I saw him spare me a smile. "Yes, I will, but you must do something for me in return." I was taken aback. What could I possibly do for someone like the Pharaoh? "Can you tell me about my past? Just… who was I?" I guess Téa had told him about the taboo thing as well. Well, it's not like I expected her to keep it a secret.

I wondered silently whether or not I was actually allowed to tell him things. How would telling Yami about his past change the course of events? His entire plotline was hinged on this knowledge. Could I really just tell him? I also wasn't completely sure about who he was either. All I knew was that he was an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh who saved the world three thousand years ago, and Yami probably knew all that at this point. I had stopped watching the show around the beginning of the fourth season so I knew nothing.

After a moment's worth of contemplation, I finally told him. "I'm sorry, Yami. I don't really know any more than you do." Yami nodded without saying a word. "I wish I did," I added. "I know how badly you want to know about your past, but I promise that you will find out who you are."

"Thank you, Lorna," he said, getting up from the bed. _He means "Thank you for nothing"_ He held his hand out for me. "Let's get back to the others." With a slight nod, I took his hand.

"Téa won't tell Joey and Tristan that they're characters, right?" I asked. I mean, it seemed sort of cruel to tell someone they didn't exist.

Yami smiled at me. "Are we characters?"

"W-Well, you are… in my world…" I sputtered, unsure of what he was implying.

He chuckled. "Exactly, Lorna. I don't know how dimensional travel works, but I know one thing for sure. Reality is subjective. What may seem real to us may seem like a fantasy to you. However," –he tightened his grip on my hand and I couldn't stop my cheeks from heating up –"what you make of this situation right now is up to you. Does it seem like reality to you?"

Hastily I nodded. "It does."

"Think of it this way," he added. "We could be the very same characters you saw in your world, or those characters could simply be a representation of a reality that exists parallel to your own."

"How do I know which one it is?" I asked, trying to think of a subtle way to ease his hold on my hand.

"You don't," he replied simply, finally releasing my hand and giving me a mysterious smile before handing control over to Yugi. I watched the fierce eyes fade, yet, their effect was still there and I couldn't get his words out of my head.


	6. Girls Girls Girls

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

I groaned and rubbed my eyes. Up until a couple of minutes ago, I was sound asleep in my room. I had no idea what time it was since I didn't have a clock in my room and even if I did, my room was in complete and utter darkness. Needless to say, I didn't quite appreciate the knocking.

After tossing and turning for a good five minutes, I heard a voice call out from behind the door. "Lorna, dear?"

"Not now, mom," I grumbled and rolled over to hold my pillow close to me.

"Téa's here to see you, sweetie!" Oh, right. Not my mom.

"Hm?" I mumbled and tried to raise my head while maintaining as much contact as possible between my body and the pillow. Unfortunately, that resulted in me losing balance. My breath caught in my throat as I braced myself for the impact, and _man_ was I impacted.

"Are you okay in there?" Téa's voice chimed from the other side of the door.

I winced and tried to sit up. Nothing really _felt_ broken so I must have been okay. I let out a strained "Yeah" and attempted to get to my feet. I was so drowsy and out of balance. I stuck out my hands, searching for the closet to hold on to in the pitch black room.

"Can I come in?" my friend asked. She sounded a bit worried. I suppose I couldn't blame her.

"Uh, sure thing!" I called back. "And turn on the light on your way in. I think I've just turned blind!"

No sooner had I spoken than I saw light flood into the room and Téa walk in. I grinned sheepishly at the expression on her face as she laid eyes on me. My hair was poking out in all directions (Yugi would be proud) and my pyjama shirt was half tucked into my pants, the untucked parts sticking out in a fashion to rival my own hair. I didn't even want to _think_ about what my face must have looked like. I waved my hand in greeting to her.

"Hi," she said, after she had stopped gaping.

"What time is it?" I asked drowsily.

"It's ten in the morning," Téa replied. "I didn't mean to wake you. I sorta expected you to be awake already…"

"Yeah… no, it's no problem," I assured her, stifling a yawn. "Where's Yugi?" And why was she here to see me and not him?

To my surprise, she shrugged. "I don't really know where he is right now. He said he was going to hang out with Joey and Tristan. So I thought it would be a good idea to go out together; y'know just us girls!"

I smiled. "Can I get dressed first?"

"Y-Yeah! Don't take too long though. You're not gonna be wearing it for long!" She exited the room and closed the door behind her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I called out through the door.

"We're going shopping! Duh!" The muffled reply sounded through the door.

I sighed. Could I even afford to go shopping? I mean, I wasn't Seto Kaiba. My money didn't grow on trees; I earned it little by little as I helped out in the shop, which I had been doing for a grand total of one day. Deciding to dwell on that later, I got dressed in a pair of jeans and a blouse, both of which I got from Yugi's mother. I guess I did need a bit of a wardrobe change.

When Téa and I went down to the front door, we found Mrs. Muto standing with her purse clutched in both hands and a giant smile on her face. "Are you girls ready to go?"

Both of us nodded. "Are you coming with us, Mrs. M?" I asked her.

She nodded. "I'm your ride," she informed me. "As well as your wallet!"

"O-Oh, right…" I murmured. Right. I was broke. "I promise I'll pay you back for everything" I began to say, but she shook her head and interrupted me.

"Don't worry about it! I've always wanted a daughter, but my husband is always busy with his business trips so I've only got Yugi," she told me. "But this is my chance! So I'm going to buy you all the cute things I wanted to buy my own daughter!"

I glanced at Téa as if to say, "Is her taste any good?" The other girl understood me and gave me an unsure grimace. Thankfully, the exchange went unnoticed by Mrs. Muto.

"Téa was my first daughter," the older woman continued. "But she never let me buy her cute things." She pouted. Wait. Was she trying to guilt trip me? "You're all I have Lorna! So I'm going to dress you in cute clothes and buy you ice cream!" She clung onto my arm. She _was_ trying to guilt trip me! There was no way in _hell_ I was going to dress up in cute clothes. I already _looked_ like a prepubescent girl. I didn't need to dress like one too.

I saw Téa give me a look. _Just go with it._ I supposed I would have to trust her on this one. After all, if she was able to escape Mrs. Muto's obsession with cute clothes, then perhaps I could as well. I nodded hesitantly and the three of us made our way to Mrs. Muto's car.

* * *

 

Our first stop was a quaint diner that was just a few blocks away from the Muto residence. There weren't many people there and that usually made me feel a bit uncomfortable, but I tried really hard to ignore it and enjoy the food.

I ordered a large stack of pancakes with whipped cream. Whipped cream was my weakness so I ordered a little extra of that. Mrs. M and Téa ordered their pancakes with fruit and made me feel like the least healthy person in the universe. It wasn't like I particularly cared, but I couldn't help but feel a bit out of place. Still, given the option, who _wouldn't_ put truckloads of whipped cream onto their pancakes. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but back at home, having pancakes without whipped cream was considered a _sin_. It just wasn't done, you know?

I watched as a waitress put down a large glass of milk in front of me. I glanced up at my companions. Mrs. M nodded at me, revealing herself as the one who bought it for me. I sighed and took a sip. I needed coffee, though. Lots of it. I probably should have spoken up earlier, but I was still sort of drowsy from that morning.

"Make sure to drink up all of your milk!" Mrs. Muto told me sternly.

I raised the glass to my lips and took another sip. "Um, okay."

She watched me like a hawk as I did so. I gave the younger girl a glance. She put a hand to her lips to stifle a giggle. Well, she definitely had no intention of being useful. I looked back at my food and tried to eat without meeting Mrs. M's watchful stare. What was she staring at? I mean, she really was a nice lady, but this was getting kinda creepy.

Finally, I looked back up at Yugi's mother and asked, "Mrs. M, was there something you wanted to tell me?"

She wasn't surprised by the question. It rather felt like she had been waiting for it as she answered very quickly. "Did your parents feed you?"

"Eh?" I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah," I told her uncertainly.

"But you're so small!" she insisted.

I held in a sigh. I think every mother in the world has told me the exact same thing upon meeting me. I wasn't _that_ small. "Yeah, I am… But I make up for it in spunk?" I replied, trying to reassure her. "Plus, I'm not particularly thin either so you don't have to worry about me not eating enough."

She mused for a moment. "Well, under _my_ roof, I'll make sure you drink tons of milk. Then maybe when you grow up you can be as tall as Téa here!" she told me cheerfully.

 _Oh, no._ She thought I was a middle-schooler. Classic mistake. "Grow up?" I took a sip of milk. "I'm turning eighteen in a couple of months, Mrs. M. I'm pretty grown up."

Téa, who had been silently eating her strawberries, finally spoke up. "You're a senior?" She sounded incredibly surprised. "That makes you older than all of us!"

I giggled and stuck my tongue out. "Indeed it does!"

"B-But how are you so tiny?" It was Téa's turn to be worried about my non-existent teenage growth spurt. Honestly, it was no big deal. Plus, Yugi was only two inches taller than me. For a guy, he wasn't really better off than I was! Perhaps their worrying was misplaced.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine, guys. Really. Being short has its benefits sometimes."

"Like what?" she asked.

I smirked. "Well, for one. I attract pedophiles." Upon seeing the shocked expressions on both Téa and Mrs. Muto's faces, I realized that perhaps that wasn't exactly the right thing to say. "I'm joking…" I told them. "It was a _joke_. I don't really attract pedophiles… You can stop giving me that look that says you're about to hire bodyguards."

"O-Oh…" Téa sputtered, "Y-Yeah, I knew that."

"Bad joke?" I smiled guiltily.

She scoffed. "You think?" Then she let out an airy laugh. "Anyway, we should get going! It's almost eleven and we need to hit the shops!"

* * *

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Domino City had an outdoor mall. It was actually pretty nice. There were potted plants everywhere and since it was still spring, there was a lovely breeze carrying the scent of flowers and grass with it. "It sure is pretty here," I commented as the three of us walked through the strip.

Mrs. Muto nodded. "Don't you have shopping strips like this back in your world?" Oh, and I made sure Yugi told his mother and grandfather about where I came from so I wouldn't have to. He told me that I should have informed them myself, but he did what I asked anyway and I was thankful for that. It still baffled me how nice these people were being, considering I lied to them and was now mooching off of them.

"We do have them," I replied. "I just don't go to them that often. They're really far away and it's easier to just go to an indoor mall."

"Well, indoor malls are good for rainy days!" she said. I think she was trying to make me feel better about having to no outdoor shopping strips near my home. However, I didn't really care much for malls or shopping. I liked having new clothes and dressing nicely, I just hated going to the effort of actually hauling my ass over to a mall and going through the immense mental pressure of actually picking something nice to buy.

"Oh!" Téa exclaimed. "There it is!" She pulled on my hand and Mrs. Muto's hand and dragged us over to a shop which looked suspiciously familiar, but I guess in a world that was allegedly based off of my own, there was no need to be surprised. As that thought crossed my mind, I remembered what Yami had told me the previous night. What if he was right? Maybe all those awkward shout-outs to brands in my world were simply representations of my reality placed in theirs. Just like how Yu-Gi-Oh represented this reality where I was currently shopping with Téa and Yugi's mother. I could barely make sense of it. This was some mindfuck I was in.

_Lorna..._

Speaking of mindfuck... I stopped in my tracks and looked around for the source of the voice, turning my head to glance at the clusters of people walking past us in the shopping strip. I sighed. _Not right now, Voice._ I'm taken out of my trance abruptly when I feel something bump into my legs. I glance down and see a young doe-eyed girl, clinging to my pant leg, her tiny fingers trailing over the fabric. She grinned at me, revealing a mouthful of baby teeth. She couldn't have been more than three years old, if not younger.

"Hey, there..." I said, crouching down to meet her gaze. "Are you lost?" I asked. There was something about this girl. I knew her... somehow.

She scrunched her nose and giggled before releasing her hold on my jeans and running off, a long dark braid trailing behind her as she did. _What?_

I sprinted after her on a whim. Did she want me to follow her?

The girl turned around, nodding curtly upon seeing that I was in fact following her, then she continued on into the street. _Oh, God. Don't do that, little girl! Streets are bad!_

"Don't go there!" I screamed at her. "It's dangerous! Come back here!" It seemed like it couldn't hear me. _Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God! NO! NO! NO!_ I could feel my heart speed up as I tried as hard as I could to catch up. I knew I shouldn't have missed gym class! Why was she just _standing_ there? _Move! PLEASE, JUST MOVE!_

I was standing on the side walk, urging the girl to move when I saw it, an insanely large bus, the kind that carried people across states. I knew there was no time to think. I leaped into the road, screaming, "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

It was as though time had stopped. I couldn't move my legs anymore and the little girl was still standing innocently without a care in the world. She wouldn't move. She couldn't even see the bus that was blazing towards her at forty miles per hour, completely oblivious to the little girl.

I saw her turn towards me. She opened her mouth in a laugh and raised her arm to wave at me. _No. No. No._ I tried my hardest to thaw my legs and move.

_BAM._

_NO!_

"Lorna?"

I gasped as the gruesome scene disappeared and I was still standing in between Mrs. Muto and Téa. There was no little girl anywhere. I was just...

I felt disgruntled as my mind tried to make sense of what I had just seen. I had just seen a little girl... A bus had just rammed into a little girl. Where was the bus? Where was the little girl? I _wasn't_ hallucinating that, right?

"Are you alright, darling?" Mrs. Muto asked gently, trailing one of her hands absentmindedly through my hair in a calming manner.

"I... " I paused. "It's nothing... I just thought I remembered something... but I didn't." I was pretty sure Téa was suspicious, but she didn't press me for any more. She decided to continue tugging me and Mrs. Muto towards the shop she had been eying earlier. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't explain what I saw. All I knew, was that girl was familiar and as I tugged at my hair anxiously, I felt her identity slowly slip into my consciousness.

She was from my world.

I shook the thought from my mind. This was probably just a side-effect of effectively being _dead to the world_ and being transported to a whole other dimension. Still... I saw that _little girl dying_. That wasn't your average everyday homesick hallucination. I ran a hand though my hair and decided not to think about it... No, I was going to have fun with Téa and Mrs. Muto and I wasn't going to let anyone interfere with that, not even imaginary dead girls.

Within minutes of stepping into the shop, Téa had assembled a pile of clothes and was shoving me inside of a changing room. _Man_ , that girl worked fast! I searched around the room for that tiny stool they sometimes put in dressing rooms so I could put the heavy pile in my hands down. Well, this was going to be the start of a _long_ day.

As I tried things on, I realized two things: one, Téa had really good taste; and two, she was _really_ good at estimating sizes. How the heck did she know my sizes? It almost felt like one of those movie montages where they dress the protagonist in the most ridiculous things and then, at the end, everyone suddenly becomes fashion aware and the protagonist ends up wearing something decent. Only this was much more tedious than the montages made it seem.

Once I was back in my original outfit, Téa and I began to sort through the clothes and pick which things we wanted and which things we didn't want. I relied mostly on my friend's intuition with fashion since I tended to dress in the strangest things when left to my own devices. Back in my own world, I usually had my mother approve or disapprove of my clothing before I left the house. It kind of felt strange to think of my mother at that moment. I had only been away from her for two days and yet it felt like it had been weeks. I used to go shopping with her all the time since she didn't trust me to go shopping with friends.

As Téa and I were finishing up the sorting, Mrs. Muto ran up to us with yet another pile of clothes nestled in her arms. "Wait, you two! I have some things for Lorna to try on, too!"

I turned over to Téa. She shrugged and grinned. "It could be fun," she told me quietly.

I scoffed. "Yeah. For _you_." She didn't reply to that. She simply giggled.

After a few minutes, I emerged from the dressing room in a frilly mini-dress with a corset and long stockings. I looked like a Lolita doll. I watched Téa burst out laughing. I sighed. There was nothing that would make this moment dignified. Nothing. I walked over to the full-length mirror and looked at myself.

 _Well, looks like you finally made it, Lorna. You finally look like a full blown Sue._ I rolled my eyes at the thought. To be a _real_ Sue, I probably still needed to be a foot taller –some liposuction and a face implant wouldn't hurt either.

I rushed back inside to change into… I pulled the piece of clothing up in front of my face. Was that a leotard? No. _No._ I dug into the pile again to pull out the next outfit. _W-Was that… a maid outfit?_ I think my eyes nearly popped out of my sockets. Well, I wasn't going to try _that_ on either. However, I promised Mrs. M that I would try on at least two things. I sighed and looked through the pile once more.

"Are you alive in there?" That was Téa. I bet she was looking forward to this.

I had no idea where Mrs. Muto found all of these clothes, but I knew for certain that none of them were practical. I wasn't even sure why she brought me what looked like a playboy bunny costume because there was no way I was going to _touch_ that. After realizing that the most appropriate thing to wear was the revealing maid outfit, I decided there was no harm in putting it on for a minute then taking it off. Though I wondered whether or not the garter belts were _really_ necessary…

I came out of the room nervously after opting to leave out the garter belts. I attempted some semblance of a curtsy. "Um, is this okay?"

Mrs. Muto gave me a once over then said, "You forgot the garter belts, silly!" She pushed me back inside.

"Ah, yeah…" I mumbled. I couldn't hear Téa sniggering, but I could feel it in my bones. One day, I would pay her back for making me endure this.

After putting the costume on correctly this time, I stepped in front of my two companions, staring at my feet in shame. I hoped that I would never have to go through this again. It was just too mortifying.

I watched in horror as Mrs. Muto's innocent face turned rabid. "You look so cute!" she squealed and pulled me into a tight hug, almost severing my head in the process. "I just want to wrap you in a bow and put you on my shelf!" She let out another incoherent squeal as she buzzed around me, twirling me around to get the full effect. I had never been more embarrassed in my life.

An unfamiliar squeal made its way to my ears as I found another pair of eyes ogling me. A girl I didn't recognize ran up to me with a starstruck expression on her face. She seemed to be one of the shop helpers. "She's adorable! I want to take her home!" Eh? Take me home? Nobody was taking me home! Not if I had anything to say about it!

I tried twisting myself to meet Téa's eyes. "Help!" I mouthed, trying to untangle myself from the women who were groping and clawing at me. Unfortunately for me, she was giggling madly and obviously wasn't going to rescue me anytime soon. Oh, I was _so_ going to get back at her for this someday.

Realzing it was hopeless, I opted for a more forceful tactic. "Alright, ladies! That's quite enough! I need to get changed." I ducked out of their grasp and went back to the changing room.

"You definitely need to buy that!" I heard the shopkeep tell Mrs. Muto. _No, she definitely didn't._


	7. Terra I

"The usual?" a waiter asks the only customer at the cafe where he works.

The customer, a tall woman with neat black hair that falls to her shoulders and ruby red lips, nods, placing one of her manicured hands on the table and beginning to absentmindedly spin the salt shaker as she waits. She knows she doesn't have to wait long as she is the only person who comes to that cafe this early after all. It is around five in the morning and she has to be at work in a couple of hours.

The man comes back to her in around five minutes, a double shot espresso in one hand and a small plate with a croissant on it. He sets both down on the table and gives the woman a warm smile before going back to the cashier's desk to chat with the pretty girl who shares his shift.

The woman knows better than to touch the burning hot espresso and starts off with her croissant first. She eats it slowly, pushing her fork into the delicate crust and taking small bites. She's in no rush to finish.

"Joey!"

She winces. It was way too early for pesky kids to be out and about, however, when she glances through the window, she sees two girls standing in the middle of the street. One of them, the taller one, has short auburn hair while the second has darker hair pulled back in double ponytails. They're yelling at the top of their lungs. "JOEY!" They seem to be searching for that Joey boy.

The _ring_ signaling a new customer causes her to stop staring at the teenagers. She turns back to her food only to find a hooded figure sitting before her. She narrows her eyes at this new arrival.

"What do you want this time?" she asks, not even trying to hide her irritation.

The figure doesn't even bother speaking. They pull out a school bag, plain and olive colored, from the ground beside them and heave it on the table. It looks really heavy. The figure then extends their hand towards the window and points a long bony finger at the girls that the woman had been staring at just moments ago.

From afar, the cashier girl and the young waiter watch the strange scene. That woman usually comes into the cafe alone. They can tell that the woman and the figure are acquaintances, but how would such a normal-looking woman know such a strange person. They watch her writing something in a notepad furiously as the figure makes rushed movements as though relaying important information, however the two observers cannot hear a thing. They can't even tell if the cloaked person is a man or a woman.

"Why do you think that person is dressed like that?" the girl asks her companion in a hushed whisper.

He shrugs and averts his gaze, trying not to stare. Though, the woman and the mysterious person are too engrossed in their conversation to notice the staring and even if they do, he doubts it would matter to them. "Do you think they're in a cult or something?" he asks the girl; the idea scares him but also somehow intrigues him.

The girl doesn't have an answer to that and the two of them don't speak again for several minutes as they watch the two older people converse. The woman, who they figure is some sort of business woman judging by her clothing, pulls black linen from her oversized designer handbag. By the looks of it, it seems to be thick and heavy -a cloak perhaps, but why would this woman own something so suspicious.

The girl and boy are surprised when the figure turns to gaze at them and although they can't see a face, this gaze paralyzes them. Just what kind of person is that? They watch as a pale finger is raised to where the person's lips would be if there were lips there to begin with. Their breath hitches and the two of them nod hurriedly as the figure stands up. The woman doesn't see this exchange, too engrossed by her notes.

Before the waiter can realize that he has forgotten to ask the strange customer for his or her order, the figure is gone. Suddenly, he can breathe easily. He glances at the cashier and sees a relief on her face as well.

The woman is oblivious to her surroundings as she downs her espresso and digs into her croissant as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened; still, she keeps glancing through the window beside her, chewing her breakfast with a hint of impatience. After drinking the last of her coffee and stuffing the last bite of her croissant into her mouth, she pulls out her wallet and places a couple of bills on the table. The waiter rushes over to take her payment and give her the change.

"Keep the change," she hisses at him a bit too harshly as she throws her dark cloak over her shoulders. She covers her face and grabs her handbag and the backpack before rushing through the front door.

* * *

With a worried expression on her face, Lorna lets out another yell. "Joey! Where are you?"

He has been missing since last night. He was supposed to see his sister at the hospital before her eye operation, but he never came. It isn't like Joey to blow off something this important so she and her friends know that something has gone terribly wrong. She casts an anxious glance at Téa and says, "I think we need to search somewhere else. He's not here."

Téa looks at her and nods. "Yeah, you're right..."

As the two girls make their way towards Mrs. Muto's car, Lorna feels someone tug her shoulder roughly. She turns around, alarmed and confused. "What?"

She sees the face of a young woman with piercing green eyes framed by a dark hood. "Lorna," the hooded woman utters in a soft voice like velvet and shoves something very heavy into Lorna's hands.

Lorna holds up the object she had just been handed and looks it over, and as her dazed eyes, still recovering from hours of searching, glide over it, she gasps in remembrance. "Wait!" she calls out to the woman who is swiftly retreating, however, her luck hasn't improved at all since she tripped down a flight of stairs just a couple of days prior and the mysterious woman doesn't pay attention to the young girl's plea.

"Who was that?" Téa asks, watching the woman disappear.

The smaller girl shrugs. "I don't know, but" -she holds up the bag the woman had just given her- "this is my school bag."

Téa's eyes widen. She doesn't need to voice her surprise because she is sure that Lorna already knows how strange it is that something like this would find its way from her original world to this world; it is strange enough that Lorna herself is here.

* * *

"Good morning, Miss Kwon!" the sunny receptionist at the KaibaCorp building greets with a large grin.

Miss Kwon smiles in acknowledgment at the at the girl whose name she has forgotten. With long, quick strides, she makes her way to the elevator and steps inside, presses the button to her floor just as she does so. There are research floors in KaibaCorp and there are office floors in KaibaCorp. Miss Kwon in particular works in one of the latter as one of the select people entrusted to maintain the massive KaibaCorp databases. Her job is especially important now that there are only two days left for Battle City Tournament.

"Hey, Sun!" A man steps into the elevator with her just before she closes the door. He works on a different floor but he's one of those people who are friends with everyone. "I heard you got the Battle City job! Way to go!"

Sun nods. "Thanks. I can't thank Mr. Kaiba enough for the opportunity!"

"And the raise, too!" he adds enthusiastically and laughs.

She spares him another smile before dismissing him. "This is my floor." She steps out of the elevator, leaving the hearty man grinning to himself. What a fool. She scowls. She hates him. She hates the cheery receptionist as well. It's not like that clumsy idiot of a girl serves any purpose other than to look pretty for the people who step into the KaibaCorp offices. She scoffs at the high and mighty Mr. Kaiba who appointed her.

Miss Kwon makes her way over to a large metallic door, which is the main obstacle between intruders and KaibaCorp's databases, and takes an ID card out of her purse, a great feat, considering how large and cluttered it is, and scans it through the scanning device beside the door. A smaller scanner emerges from a compartment just above the card reader and like an eager child, raises itself to Miss Kwon's eye level and begins to scan her retinas. Once it is satisfied, it goes back to its compartment with an affirmative _ding_.

"Welcome, Sun Kwon," a feminine robotic voice greets as the door opens for the woman.

Sun is pleased to realize that she is the first to arrive. She is always the first to arrive anyway. She makes sure of it. She steps into the large office. It's spacious so she has to at least give Mr. Kaiba props for that. He may be a stupid child, but he sure knows how to treat his employees.

Her desk is situated at the back of the room. She had specifically asked for that spot and seeing as nobody else particularly wanted to sit there, it was given to her. She goes over to her computer and as she sits down, it automatically starts up. _Mr. Kaiba and his technology..._ she thinks with a smirk typing in her password and gaining access. The first thing she does is open the database and insert a new duelist record.

 **Name:** Lorna Beck

 **Gender:** Female

 **DoB:** 12 – 1 – 1995

 **Deck Type:** Light/Fairy

 **Rarest Card:** Neo-Parshath, the Sky Paladin

 **Prior Tournaments:** None

 **Rank:** * * * *


	8. Pre-Battle City Jitters

"A duel disk?" Joey asked as Yugi's group stood around me.

The day before was just crazy. Joey was supposed to see Serenity in the hospital, but he was mugged by Rare Hunters and had his _Red-Eyes_ taken. You know, you'd think I would have warned him about that happening seeing as I actually fucking watched that part of the series. I was such a dumbass protagonist, I swear!

Joey's mother called Yugi's mom in hysterics. Apparently, Serenity was having a tantrum and wouldn't leave her hospital room or let anyone see her because Joey wasn't there yet. Knowing Joey, he wasn't the type to just _bail_ on his sister so naturally, the gang and I went looking for him. On one of our stops though, a strange lady came up to me and gave me a bag. The thing is, it was my backpack, which I was pretty sure was supposed to be at home, in my dimension, where I was braindead.

And that's what you missed on Glee!

At the moment, we were checking the contents of the bag. It had most of the stuff that had been in it when I left for school in the morning a couple of days ago. You know... Books, laptop, phone, ipod, pencils... All that jazz. However, we also found a box inside for a duel disk and I was certain that it had been planted there, but by who? That weird lady in the black cloak? Was she some kind of rare hunter or something? What would the rare hunters want with someone like _me_? And if she wasn't a rare hunter, who was she?

"I think they want you to use it," Tristan remarked intuitively. _Gee, thanks for that. I never would have guessed otherwise._

I sighed and picked up the box. "Yeah, but who's ' _they_ '?" Nobody answered that. "Do they expect me to be a finalist? Because I wouldn't be too optimistic if I were them." I looked behind me to see four people open their mouths to deny what I had just said, looking like they had just seen their almighty deity bashed right before their eyes. I rolled my eyes. "Guys, save it." All four open mouths slowly closed again.

"Hey," Joey finally said, "we'll be with you every step of the way. Just do your best, alright?"

Feeling a fluttery feeling in my stomach, I nodded slightly. "Yeah."

"Besides! With the great Joey Wheeler rooting for ya, you _know_ luck's gonna be on your side!" he proclaimed, slapping his hand down on my shoulder and grinning while I tried to soothe the pain that had come from Joey nearly dislocating my shoulder. _Asshole._ And with that thought, I couldn't help but return the gesture with an elbow to the gut and a smile of my own.

"Thanks, Joey."

"Battle City starts tomorrow!" Tristan reminded us. "You oughta have Joey and Yugi help you get ready! They're pros!"

I giggled. "I already know that, Tristan, but that is a good idea."

Yugi nodded. "I'll get grandpa to help, too! He taught me everything I know!"

"With everyone helping you out, you're definitely gonna get those six locator cards." Tristan beamed at me. I nodded, feeling a bit uncertain, but smiling back at him nonetheless, however I couldn't help but think about how exactly I would fit into the Battle City finalists. In my opinion, each of the canon contestants was entirely necessary to the plot. It's not like I could take any of their places. Yugi, Marik, Kaiba and Odion needed to be there for obvious reasons. Joey was _Joey_ , so he definitely needed to be in the finals. Ishizu was Marik's sister and the whole reason the tournament was started. Bakura was in cahoots with Marik so that meant he was a necessary finalist. And I wasn't taking Mai's place unless I wanted a one way ticket to the shadow realm. I somehow doubted that the Voice wanted me to end up _there_.

* * *

 

When Grandpa found out I was competing in the Battle City tournament, he was excited to say the least. He honestly couldn't believe that _three_ of his prodigies were competing. Ha! If you could call me a prodigy, that is... We spent the whole evening dueling and by the time we were done, I was completely spent. Who knew card games could be so tiring? I sure didn't. It was also _incredibly_ boring if you spent hours doing it _over and over again,_ but it was still worth it since I was much more familiar with my deck and my strategies when it was all over.

"You've definitely improved these past couple of days," Yugi reassured me as I lay on my bed, rubbing my sore eyes.

"Thanks," I murmured weakly. I hadn't been this tired since I fell into a coma that one time.

"No problem..." Yugi was silent for a while after that. He seemed to be deep in thought.

I heaved myself up into a sitting position, startling Yugi, who was sitting at the edge of the bed. "You have something you want to talk about, don't you, Yugi." _I_ had something I wanted to talk about too, namely that little girl I saw in the street when I went out with Téa and hi _s_ mother the other day, but his problems were probably much more important than mine, taking into consideration the fact that he shared his body with a _three thousand year old pharaoh_ that lived in a puzzle that he hung around his neck.

"Huh? N-Not really," he replied.

For a moment, I thought about backing down and letting it go, but this was Yugi. He was definitely worried about something. "Tell me," I said, crawling across the bed to sit beside him.

He glanced at me as I came over. He sighed and looked down. "Well, I guess you already know everything." I nodded. "It's just about what Ishizu told me at the museum."

I shifted into a comfortable sitting position before speaking. "You're scared because you don't know what you're up against, right?"

I saw him nod. "I'm scared because I don't know what to expect..." He paused for a bit then spoke again. "You know about Duelist Kingdom... right?"

"Yeah, I do," I replied.

"Pegasus took people's souls," he said in spite of it being information that I already knew. "Isn't that messed up, Lorna?"

I wasn't quite sure what sort of point he was trying to make, but I agreed with him because he was clearly worried about something. "Pegasus was a messed up guy..." I paused to think of the right thing to say. "You got through it though, didn't you? You had your friends with you. You had Yami backing you up the whole time. You kicked ass, Yugi."

I saw a flicker of a smile on his face. I guess that wasn't what he needed reassurance for. "What we're going to face now... It's going to be much worse than Pegasus, isn't it?"

I wanted to tell him that everything would work out and that everything would be easy, but I knew that was bullshit. Marik was ten times worse than Pegasus and when he turned into Yami Marik, he was worse still. I didn't know much about what Yami Marik fangirls saw, but that guy was fucked up. "I'm not going to lie to you, Yugi. This guy isn't going to be easy to face."

"Can you tell me about him?" he asked.

I sighed and looked up thoughtfully. "Well," I started. _He's going to put you through hell._ Like I could actually tell him something like that. "He's got a millennium item, and he's going to hide behind it until the Battle City finals." I wasn't sure if revealing Marik's plan would hurt or help the guys. What if Marik resorted to a much worse "Plan B" upon realizing that his "Plan A" was foiled. What if he sent me to the shadow realm or something because I messed with him? Wait. You had to duel people to send them to the shadow realm... Well, me and my brand spankin' new duel disk were _definitely_ not going within dueling distance of that guy _ever._

Yugi didn't seem satisfied. I couldn't blame him. I gave him the most bullshit answer yet. "Can't you say more?" he pleaded.

"Well..." I bit my lip and tried to look him in the eye, but I couldn't. He really wanted to know as much as he could, and I was letting him down. "I don't know how the information I'm telling you could change your future..." I said. "And I know that you and the Pharaoh do defeat this guy. I don't want to risk changing that. So can you just trust me on this one?"

I watched the expression on his face calm down slightly. He nodded. "I trust you, Lorna. If you say that we're going to get through this, then we will. I know it won't be easy... but I'll give it my all!"

"And we'll all stand behind you, Yugi," I told him, giving him a warm smile. I let one of my fingers trace over the edge of the millennium puzzle. "You too, Yami."

"Thank you," Yugi said, smiling. Or was it Yami? I couldn't tell.

"We should get our sleep, Yugi," I reminded him. "We need to have our wits about us for tomorrow if we're gonna make it to the finals. And you especially have a big day."

"Oh, yeah!" he said as though he had truly forgotten about sleep and honestly, I couldn't say I blamed him. How could he sleep when he knew a raving lunatic worse than Pegasus was going to be wandering around Battle City? How could _I_ sleep with all knowing that someone _wanted_ me to duel in Battle City tournament -knowing that someone was _expecting me_ to duel? He got to his feet quickly.

"Wait, Yugi!"I called out before he could make it to the door. I jumped to my feet and ran up to him, pulling him into a bear hug. You could say that I was a bit on the touchy-feely side despite being more than hesitant to admit to being someone's friend and I often wondered what that said about me... "Sleep well, okay? And good luck tomorrow."

He stiffened when he felt me against him, but only for a split second because he swiftly returned the hug. "Thanks. I will. And good luck to you too," he said against my shoulder.

I pulled away from him and gave him a sheepish grin before pushing him roughly out of my room. "Now, get to sleep!" _Lord knows you need it..._

I sighed and returned to my bed as soon as the door was shut, flopping on top and trying to dull the headache that was was beginning to descend from my temples to the back of my neck. My bed felt so hard and my chest hurt like hell, ignoring the pain, I shut my eyes even tighter and tried to go to sleep; after all, I was just tired and I would feel better if I got some sleep.

"Lorna..."

It was lower than a whisper and raspy like sandpaper on a carpet. I winced and moved my hands up to my ears, crying out weakly when they refused to move and sent a searing pain shooting through my shoulders. It was so difficult to breathe... What was the matter? I opened my eyes to find the reason why my arms weren't moving, only to have a bright light impairing my vision and making my headache even worse than it had been before.

I wasn't in my room, was I?

As my eyes adjusted to the light, my body became more aware of where I was and the pain in my arms and chest became much more difficult to shrug off and my breath became more ragged and labored. The surface beneath me felt so cold and hard that I doubted I was even on a bed to begin with. I tried letting out a sigh. _Not this shit again..._

There was a large glass door right in front of my face which seemed to lead to the outside of wherever I was, but what unnerved me about that glass door was the fact that the "outside" that it led to was awfully familiar. I had walked in that street and tossed my gum in one of those potted plants. I chuckled, or at least, I attempted to chuckle. I knew this was a dream. I couldn't be in Domino City or with Yugi and Téa. Yu-Gi-Oh didn't exist. This was all a strangely long hallucination that I suffered for some reason and now I was minutes away from death. _Real_ death. I thought boring people like me didn't die young...

Speaking of death, what _was_ that pain in my chest? And that _smell_? There was a repugnant scent in the air; something like burnt meat and rotten eggs filled my nostrils and made its way to my lungs. I couldn't cough, though; it hurt too much...

I heard the shuffling of feet and a strangled cry, instantly making me feel relieved. Someone was here to get me to a hospital...

My heart began to flutter and before I could call out to whoever it was that had come for me, I found myself in a completely different part of the entrance of my apartment building, with my back against a wall, elevated at least four feet in the air. Below me, I could see a woman, one of my neighbors who went out for a jog everyday at around the same time I went to school. We would often meet at the door and say our hellos to each other before parting ways. She was a nice lady, who always had a smile on her face, rain or shine. Today, however, I saw her usually serene face was twisted out of recognition by terror.

I opened my lips to call out to her, forcing my voice to come out of my throat, but nothing happened. I was mute and paralyzed from the neck down. Fear trickled down the back of my neck, making my heart rate spike. What was going on?

My eyes slowly followed the woman's line of vision to see a limp body on the ground. I could feel the bile climbing to throat, leaving a burning sensation in its wake. _Is that me?_

The young girl on the ground certainly looked the part, with her shoulder-length hair tied back, wearing my school's uniform. However, I couldn't tear my eyes away from a large piece of wood protruding from her back, darkened by blood. I wanted to bring up my arm to my mouth and try not to vomit at the sight. That was me... with part of the wooden stair railing I had broken going straight through my chest.

" _Lorna..._ "

My eyes darted around the entryway for the source of the soft and unnerving voice, only to find an unfamiliar figure standing with its feet right beside my head, its own hooded head staring down at me. I watched, my nerves sending cold shocks through my body, as the hooded figure raised its head and turned it to look directly at me -or rather, the one who was pinned to the wall, not the one who lying on the ground. I couldn't look away from the black... nothingness in place of its face.

" _Give in..._ " Its surreal voice came right out of the figure's face, breaking the silence. I could see something dark and thick coming out of the hood, hovering around the head and dissolving into the air around it. _Smoke?_

_"Give in, Lorna..._ "

_No..._

" _Lorna, give in. Give in. Give in. Give in. Give in."_

The words wouldn't stop coming. It wouldn't stop. The words pierced through my ears like knives, making my heart race. They kept repeating like a satanic mantra. Eventually, they weren't words; they were sounds. And they wouldn't stop.

"GIVE IN. GIVE IN. GIVE IN. GIVE IN. LoRnA yOU mUSt GivE IN."

They were screaming at me now. I held my ground, like an ant in a tornado. _No._ I needed to hold on. I would never give in to this creature.

"yOU CaN REST. LorNa. ResT. GIVEIN GIVEINGIVEINGIV EINGIVEI NGIVEIN GIVEINGI VEINGI VEINGIVE INGIVEIN GIVEINGIVEI NGIVEINGIVEINGIVEINGIV EI NGIVEIN"

IT wOULDn'T StoP. sTOP. PleaSE _sTOP. No mORe. NO. NO. NO._

_"LORN ALOR NALORNA LORNALO RNA"_

An arm extended itself towards me, black and slimy. I gagged and tried to shut my eyes, but they wouldn't shut. They wouldn't close. I couldn't blink. I couldn't look away. The hand was closer. Inky mucus was running down the arm and dripping onto the floor -the floor, slipping away from me at an incredible speed. I wanted to fall down. I wanted to get away. I felt my lips parting slowly, out of my control. My jaw opened as wide as it could, the strained joints and muscles making me uncomfortable and the stretched skin of my face sending jolts of pain through my nerves.

"GiVeIN gIVeINgiVEI NG IveINgivEINGI V EINgiveinGIV einGIV EINgIV Ei NGiveIn IVEINGiVEinGIVE I NGiv EINGIVE iNGiv EINGIV einGIv EIN GIveINg IVEIngIVEINgiv eIn GIveingI VeIN"

Why wasn't my jaw shutting? I was ordering it to shut! It needed to shut! Right now!

WHy wOULdn'T IT StoP. ShUT UP SHUTUP sTOP plEAse.

The arm was coming closer. I felt like crying when four dripping wet fingers, covered in filth, inserted themselves into my mouth, followed by the thumb. It was over for me. I wanted to struggle, but it was hopeless. I couldn't move. I wasn't strong enough. The arm, which seemed to go on for miles in the endless room, made its way down my throat.

_I was done for..._

_"Give in, Lorna._ "

_I gIVE in. tAKE me._

The appendage was so far down in my throat now that I couldn't tell you exactly where it was. I didn't understand what was happening, but the moment I decided to give in, everything became dark. Everything was over. The pain was all gone. In fact, I had never felt better in my whole life. I could rest now.

_"Hey, babe... Look over there!"_

_Huh?_

_"Is she okay?"_

_"I don't know! You should call an ambulance!"_

_What? What... was going on now?_

_"Um, I have an emergency! There's a girl here...just passed out..."_

_Wasn't everything... over?_


	9. Mysterious Jurrac Duelist

"Lorna, you have to eat your breakfast..." Mrs. Muto pleaded, pushing a plate of omelets towards me that would usually look very appetizing, but that morning, I couldn't put _anything_ in my mouth. I couldn't tell her why, though. In addition to the fact that it would only serve to frighten the poor woman, I honestly didn't know what I would say if I were asked to describe the nightmare that I had had the night before.

"I... can't..." I replied dismissively, giving her a smile.

"Lorna!" Grandpa Muto tried this time, sounding much more firm than the woman before him. "You're going to be having a big day today! You're competing in Battle City Tournament! And you can't do that on an empty stomach!"

"Mr. Muto... I'm fine -" I tried to say, but was interrupted by Yugi this time.

He stepped into the kitchen with his duel disk strapped to his arm, looking armed and ready to go into battle. "They're right, you know. You need to eat."

I bit my lip and looked away from Yugi, knowing that if I maintained eye contact long enough, he would be alerted of my distress. I didn't really want to tell him. Not yet. Not while we had bigger problems to worry about, namely Marik Ishtar. The last thing we needed was Yugi _failing_ to defeat Marik just because he was caught up worrying about my messed up nightmares. "I'm fine, Yugi..." I said to the plate sitting on the table in front of me.

"Well," Yugi began. I turned my head around to see him making his way out of the kitchen. "I gotta get going to get an early start. I'll meet up with you later, okay?"

I nodded, feeling a bit anxious since I wasn't going to have anyone with me as I went around Battle City. However, I couldn't hide behind Yugi all the time, which sadly enough, was entirely possible -literally. Besides, it would be much easier to find duelists who were willing to challenge me if I _wasn't_ hanging around the reigning King of Games.

* * *

 

It took me a while to get myself out of the house so I could start dueling, as Mrs Muto and Grandpa Muto wouldn't let me leave the kitchen until I had eaten something. Unfortunately, my gag reflex kicked in every time I considered putting anything near my mouth. Thankfully, we reached a compromise when I agreed to put a couple of granola bars in my bag along with my phone, which now had all of my friends' numbers in it, and my ipod, which I never left the house without, whether I planned on using it or not. I was out of the house less than an hour after Yugi had left and it made me feel a bit better that Yugi probably wasn't _that_ far away from me.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Mrs. Muto asked as she saw me off at the door. I could see hurt in her violet eyes and it had taken all my strength not let her come along. I wasn't sure who I would encounter in Battle City, but I knew Marik was not at all opposed to murder and I knew he would try to kill Yugi and his friends. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I ended up putting her in danger as well.

"Sorry!" I said, cracking a small smile -or at least, I hoped I did. I searched desperately for an excuse to give her. "I-I'm meeting up with Téa and Tristan later! So... I won't be alone." I hesitated for a moment then wrapped my arms tightly around the older woman. "I'll see you after Yugi wins the tournament," I told her as I pulled away.

She looked considerably less upset after the hug and smiled warmly. "You could win just as easily you know!"

I giggled. "Against Yugi?" Ha! Not a chance!

I watched her put a hand to her lips, holding back a small laugh. "Be safe, Lorna."

"Of course!" I replied with a wave, twirling around and heading out into town.

* * *

 

After about twenty minutes of walking through unfamiliar streets, I started to feel like going out on my own was a bad idea. However, after stumbling upon a road that was vaguely familiar from when I went out with Téa, I followed it to find myself in Domino City Plaza, the place where I woke up on fateful day. Today, however, it was more packed than I had ever seen it. There were a couple of duels taking place on opposite sides of the Plaza, each with its own crowd of excited bystanders.

I adjusted the strap on my shoulder bag as I made my way over to one of the duels. _There was no harm in observing for a few minutes,_ I thought as I pushed myself through the crowd. Some part of me expected the two duelists to be people I knew so I was disappointed to find out that I knew neither of the two boys dueling heatedly.

It seemed like I had made it just in time to see the duel end. One of the boys, a very young one with bright red hair and a scowl on his face, had a bare field with no monsters and a lonely spell card, while the other, who appeared to be much older and was standing smugly at the other side, was surrounded by winged-beast monsters, the strongest one being a large, majestic looking bird, with red feathers on its body, golden feathers on its head and dark magenta feathers in its crown, wings and tail. It flapped its wings gallantly, beady eyes locked on the poor duelist who was just about to face its wrath.

" _Crimson Sunbird_!" the older boy hollered, extending his arm towards his opponent. "Attack his life points directly!"

It was the first time I had ever seen a holographic duel and I could feel my pulse speed up as the holographic bird raced towards the panicking boy. It looked so _real_! And for a moment, my heart dropped and I almost looked away, fearing for the boy who looked like he was about to die.

_Keep it together, Lorna!_ I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. I mean, how many times had I watched stuff like this on TV? I _knew_ they were just holograms.

A holographic counter appeared beside the younger boy, counting down to zero as he dropped to his knees in defeat. His spell card disappeared along with every other hologram on the field and the victor stepped forwards, kneeling down to help the boy to his feet. "You did great, kid!"

The boy perked up, raising his head and looking at his opponent with glimmering eyes. "Really?"

"Yeah!" the older one affirmed and pulled the boy to his feet. He chuckled and scratched the back of his neck absentmindedly. " _But..._ You still gotta give me your locator card and your rarest card!"

I rolled my eyes and turned around. Enough dilly dallying for me now...

Walking back to the center of the square, I felt very out of place. I needed to duel someone if I was going to get any locator cards, but I would much rather have had someone challenge me instead of actually trying to speak to other human beings. I looked around for someone to duel and felt my heart lurch when I found someone very familiar making his way out of the square. He was an average-looking teenager with shoulder-length russet hair. I couldn't quite place him in my memory, but he did exist there somewhere. Was he also from my world?

Hesitantly, I strode towards him swiftly before I could lose sight of him. Unlike the little girl I had seen a couple of days ago, he didn't seem to be aware of me and I wondered what exactly I would find when I finally caught up to him. Would I witness his death as well... just as I witnessed that little girl's death? The thought dug painfully into my gut and even though I was pretty sure I needed to follow this guy, I really, _really_ didn't want to.

"Hey, you!"

I was snapped abruptly back to reality by a harsh voice, which, after a moment, I recognized to be that boy's voice -the one I had been following. I blinked in surprise at the boy as he examined me, most likely trying to see why I would be following him. _Luckily_ for me, I had no explanation to offer him whatsoever.

"Why are you following me?" he asked, stepping closer to me so that the distance between us was now a little less than two meters. My mind struggled to find an answer to that question as my mouth opened and closed like a fish, waiting for the words to come through. The boy, however, decided to relieve me of the burden of coming up with an excuse by asking: "Did you want an autograph?"

_Autograph?_ Who did this guy think he was?

"N-No... I ..." I sputtered pathetically. _Great, Lorna. Good job! You could have gotten away with following him if you just asked for his fucking autograph! Now, you have to make up_ another _excuse for why you were fucking stalking him. You dug yourself into this hole, Lorna, now figure out a way to escape._

The boy raised his right arm, which I noticed had a duel disk attached to it. "Did you wanna duel me?"

Thinking fast, I nodded my head. However, as the boy smirked and prepped his duel disk, I found myself wondering how much I actually thought before accidentally challenging this guy to a duel. If I lost, I would lose my only locator card and my rarest card and I couldn't afford to lose those in my first duel! It wasn't like I had much of a choice, though. It looked like I was going to have to duel him so I needed to trust my deck and myself. I mean, I was trained by Yugi -motherfucking- Muto and if Yugi thought I was ready for this competition then I was definitely ready.

I raised my right arm, turning on my duel disk and watching as it lit up, displaying my life points. Two things, which I believe were simulators, ejected themselves from the duel disk and placed themselves on either side of me, nearly scaring the shit out of me since I had no idea duel disks could do that. What if someone was _standing_ over there? I couldn't help but imagine how many people would _die_ due to irresponsible and careless use of duel disks. Thanks, Seto Kaiba. "So can you speak?" the boy asked, drawing his first five cards.

"Yes," I replied as red began to stain my cheeks.

"Good. You can go first."

**?: 4000**

**Lorna: 4000**

"Alright! Let's do this!" I said, drawing six cards and looking them over. I quickly put down my _Sanctuary in the Sky_ on the duel disk, just like Yugi showed me. "I activate _Sanctuary in the Sky!"_ Seemingly out of nowhere, the field began to fill up with mist... no, not mist - _clouds_. I could hear rumbling, like stones shaking and shifting and saw a temple rise up out of the ground on my side of the field.

"What does _that_ do?" he asked, looking a bit unnerved.

I sneered at him, feeling smug with my lucky draw. " _That_ ensures that every time you attack a fairy, I don't lose life points!"

He rolled his eyes and I almost marched up to that little shit and strangled him. "Oh, so you're one of _those_ girls..." he said, sounding a bit disappointed, then he grinned. "Well, then, I'm going to win this duel sooner than I thought! Now get your turn over with!"

Giving the boy a dirty look, I looked down at my hand. "Then I summon _Fairy's Gift_ in attack mode. Then I'll put down one face down card and end my move." Three small child-like fairies appeared on my side of the field, dancing and giggling amongst each other. They were sickeningly cute, and while they had 1700 attack, I sort of wished they were slightly more intimidating.

The boy scoffed and drew his card. He set one monster before shrugging and saying, "Your move."

I stared incredulously at the play. That monster was completely defenseless with no traps or spells to protect it. Did he _want_ me to attack it? I drew a card and smiled. It was my _Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen._ I didn't need it just yet, but it couldn't hurt to set it down. "I summon _Ancient Elf_ ," I declared, as the elf pixelated into existence, violet cloak billowing in the wind, holding her staff at the ready. Yep, I could definitely get used to seeing my monsters like this. Before the boy could let out another scoff at the fact that I summoned yet _another_ female monster, I declared my attack, starting with _Dancing Fairy_.

As the trio of fairies made their way over to the monster, it revealed itself to be some sort of flaming reptile... with a beak. "The fuck is that..." I murmured, watching my monsters pulverize it. Not wasting any time, I called out to my _Ancient Elf._ "Attack his life points directly, _Ancient Elf_!"

"Not so fast!" the boy hollered, interrupting my attack. He had a large, smug grin on his face.

I couldn't even question his exclamation before my attention was turned to my _Dancing Fairy._ "What's happening to my fairies?" Their soft bubbly laughter had turned into screams of agony and all three of them were burning alive. "What did you do?" I exclaimed, my voice betraying a sense of distress. _Those were my fucking fairies!_

"Guess you don't know my _Jurrac Gallim'_ s special ability!" he said with a snigger. "Any monster that destroys this card goes straight to the graveyard with it! That means your lame fairies are toast!" _Fucking punny, you punk-ass motherfucker._

"Well, then _Ancient Elf,_ make your attack _extra_ painful!" I ordered, proceeding with my attack.

The boy waved his finger with an excited smile. "Ah ah ah! Wait! There's more!" _More? This fuckwad had better not have something worse up his sleeve._ "Since my _Gallim_ was in face down defense position, I get to special summon my _Jurrac Herra_ to the field!" A giant lizard creature -you know what? It was a fucking dinosaur, standing on its hind legs with a large bazooka strapped to its back. It also had 2300 attack. Well, I could now say goodbye to my locator card.

I scowled, looking down at my hand and trying to figure out what exactly I could do about this thing. I mean, with _Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen_ , I could summon any fairy in my hand, granted I had no other monsters on my side of the field. However, the only fairy in my hand was _Marie the Fallen One_ , which was definitely no match for _Herra._ The only other card being a trap which I _definitely_ could not use. I sighed dejectedly since I couldn't put my _Ancient Elf_ in defense mode and waited for him to make his move.

The boy summoned another dinosaur in the beginning of his turn, setting a spell or trap behind it. This one was smaller than _Herra_ , thankfully; however it also had 1700 attack points. So, my _Ancient Elf_ was doomed. "Alright! _Guaiba_! Incinerate her _Ancient Elf_!" I winced as the creature dashed towards my _Elf_ and destroyed her. Well, it's name was fucking _Guaiba_. With a name so close to Kaiba, no wonder it was a bitchass, dickhead of a monster. Since _Ancient Elf_ was a spellcaster, the _Sanctuary in the Sky_ did fuckall to protect me and I lost life points. Welp... I was definitely off to a _rough_ start.

Also, I would like to let everyone know before we continue that when duelists winced and ducked, they were in fact reacting to the special effects coming from those lethal simulation devices at our sides which occasionally liked to blast fucking tornadoes at my face. Like my hair actually needed powerful gusts of wind ruining it; it was already a mess since I never bothered to brush it _ever._

The boy pretended to yawn and tap his foot impatiently at my incompetence. "Shoulda guessed that a _girl_ would suck at this game." _The fuck did he just say?_ "Any last words? I think I'll have you beat by my next turn, so why don't you hand over your locator card and rarest card now so you don't have to suffer a humiliating defeat!" He chuckled to himself, as though making a joke with the voice inside his head, who was probably also a dick. Just saying. "On second thought, you can keep your rarest card! I bet it sucks just like the rest of your deck! How did you even qualify for this tournament!" _I don't know..._ I didn't tell him that, though. I mean, he didn't _need_ more material to work with for his _hi-fucking-larious_ derogatory commentary.

At this point, I was trembling with either silent rage or tears of pent up frustration; however, silent rage sounded a bit less pathetic, so let's go with that. How _dare_ he talk about my deck like that? Yugi helped me make that and we worked _so hard_. This guy didn't deserve to belittle it like that! I opted not to answer him, simply focusing on the game. "I'm going to activate my spell card, _Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen,_ which lets me special summon my _Marie_ _the Fallen One_ to the field, and I'm putting it in defense mode! Now, get your turn over with so I can show you just what my deck is made of!"

"Fine then!" he exclaimed, obviously irritated with my determination to win. Like _hell_ I was going to surrender to this fucking douche! " _Herra!_ Send her monster packing!"

I flinched slightly as _Marie_ burned thanks to _Herra_ 's bazooka, which incidentally turned out to be a flamethrower, however, I refused to appear defeated. This guy was going down. I made a face and drew a card, suppressing the groan that built up in my throat at the monster I had managed to draw. _Spirit of the Harp_ wasn't bad since it could protect me from his weaker monster, but it would be crushed easily by _Herra_.

**?: 4000**

**Lorna: 3750**

"Hey! What's going on with your life points?" he called out.

My life points suddenly went up to 3950. I let out a short laugh of relief. I had completely forgotten about _Marie_ _the Fallen One's_ special effect! "Remember that monster you just killed? Well, that gives me 200 life points in each of my standby phases as long as it's in my graveyard."

He narrowed his eyes and snorted. "Well, a measly 200 per turn won't save you from my monsters!"

"Whatever..." I mumbled, setting my _Spirit of the Harp_ down on the field in face down defense position before ending my turn.

"That's _all_?" he asked, rolling his eyes. I nodded firmly. I was going to pay a hefty price in life points during the next turn, but I would be fine as long as I trusted my deck to give me the card I needed. "Okay! First, I'll summon _Jurrac Velo_! Now, _Guaiba,_ destroy her face down monster!" Another dinosaur materialized right beside his other two.

I smirked as _Guaiba_ headed towards my _Spirit of the Harp,_ and even more so when he promptly lost 300 life points. "What was that about my deck being lame?" I asked, playing it tough, although I knew full well that _Herra_ was going to beat the shit out of my monster.

"Whatever! _Herra_ beat that fairy to a pulp!" he ordered, gesturing dramatically towards my monster. _God_ , people actually did that? I mean, I thought it was exaggerated for drama's sake, but _fucking hell,_ it was cheesy as fuck now that I was seeing it in person. However, I had to hold that thought as my _Spirit of the Harp_ shattered in front of me and I had one more dinosaur to worry about. I shut my eyes tightly as _Velo_ ran towards me. As expected, it didn't hurt, just that gust of wind, which made me want to tear my hair out in frustration.

**?: 3700**

**Lorna: 2250**

"You can end your turn now," I told him, trying as hard as I could to convey my grumpiness to him without sounding like a pissed off eight year-old.

As some sort of dickhead, shitface answer, he began to chuckle, increasing my irritation with each heave of his stupid-face breath. If that wasn't enough, he began to laugh heartily shortly afterward. I began to think back on what I had told him because, obviously, he found it so amusing that he was incapable of proper speech and that just pissed me off.

"H-Hey!" I cried out in outrage. "Stop laughing and end your fucking turn!"

Still, laughing, the boy dropped the cards in his hand, sending them flying about in the wind, and brought his now free hand to his neck.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying not to sound nervous as I did so. My eyes trailed after his fingers which were rubbing over his neck slowly. " _Stop it!"_ I reprimanded.

"Stop what?" he asked innocently. His fingers wouldn't stop though, and something red trailed down his neck and through the gaps between them.

_Was that... blood?_

It soon became clear to me that he _wasn't_ rubbing his neck; he was scratching it, scratching his skin right off, thick, scarlet blood seeping through the tattered tissue "Stop it! What are you doing?"I shrieked. Why wouldn't he stop?

"StOP wHAT?"

"Not again! Not again!" I whimpered, covering my eyes with the card in my hand and backing away slowly. My heart was pounding in my chest, threatening to fly out, and I couldn't stop my breathing from becoming ragged and painful. Why did I keep seeing people die? Why did I have to see these things? Why wasn't it over yet? It was taking so long for him to _die_...

"lORnA!"

_Please, leave me alone..._


	10. Incendium I

_What the hell is up with this chick,_ he thinks as he watches the strange girl recoil from him and cover her face with her hand. He doesn't know what to make of it. First, she follows him and then she's scared shitless of him?

"Stop it!" she screams, though she doesn't seem to be aware of how loud her voice is and he can see concerned bystanders gathering around their duel.

"Stop what?" he hollers back at her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Lorna!" someone calls out, causing him to turn and search for the source of the voice. He groans when he recognizes the newcomer. It's Tristan Taylor, a guy that he absolutely despises and a friend of Joey Wheeler. What is _he_ of all people doing here? He can feel his lip twitch in annoyance at the idea of that girl being a part of Tristan's gang, though it certainly explains her lame deck, though...

Tristan runs towards them and comes to a halt at the girl - _Lorna's_ side. He puts his hands at her shoulders and rubs them comfortingly. The boy almost gags at the sight of them. What is she? His girlfriend or something?

"Lorna, calm down... I'm here... Shh..." Tristan says quietly, trying to disregard the crowd that had gathered. It was the crowd that led him here to begin with, but now he feels uncomfortable with the several pairs of eyes watching him, curious to find out what is wrong with his friend. His calming words seem to quiet her down and her screaming has turned into almost inaudible whimpering. Not letting go of his friend, Tristan turns his head to glare at Lorna's opponent. "What did you do to her, Dino-Boy?" he bellows.

Dino-Boy, or rather, Rex Raptor, looks incredulous at the allegation. _"Me?_ I did jack shit! Your girlfriend here just started screaming out of nowhere!"

Tristan lowers his head, confused as to why Lorna would be so afraid of _Rex Raptor_ of all people; he isn't exactly the most intimidating person in the world after all. "That's not like her..." he mutters to himself, feeling the meek and terrified Lorna pull him closer. He bites his lip and contemplates on what to do for a moment.

"Listen, Lorna," he finally says, forcing her to look up at him. "You can win this duel, okay?"

She stares blankly at him for a moment then gives him a shaky nod. "Mhm..."

"And I'm gonna be right behind you, okay?"

She nods again and puts her card to her chest, turning around again to face her opponent. Her eyes widen again as she looks at him and Rex can see her trying frantically to avert her gaze. "I don't have anything in my hand, T-Tristan." She makes sure that only Tristan can hear her words, and he knows she's trying hard not to sound terrified, so he doesn't let her know that she's doing a horrible job of hiding her emotions.

Tristan stands behind Lorna, placing his hands firmly on her shoulders and steadying her so that she's no longer shaking and flinching. "Lorna, I don't know much about duel monsters," he admits, cursing himself for getting off to a bad start in reassuring her, "I don't know what Yugi would do in this situation..." He racks his brain for the right thing to say, knowing that Lorna is hanging desperately on to his every word. "B-But I know that somewhere deep down inside of you, you know exactly what Yugi would tell you if he were here, so you need to calm down, and think hard about your next move. Got it?" Without turning to look at him, she nods her head once. "Good," he says with a sigh. "Kick his ass."

She nods once more before moving a shaky hand to her deck, shutting her eyes tightly as she draws her next card. She peeks a the card, groaning weakly when she realizes that she hasn't managed to get a monster, but a second trap card.

**Rex: 3700**

**Lorna: 2450**

_Swords of Revealing Light..._ and _Beckoning Light..._ What kind of strategy can she possibly make? The _Swords_ can fend off his attacks and protect her life points, but for only three turns, while B _eckoning Light_ allows her to replace her hand with light monsters from her graveyard. Unfortunately, it's completely useless because the only card in her hand, other than _Beckoning Light_ , at the moment is _Swords of Revealing Light_ , which she needs to fend off his monsters. However, the _Swords_ can still buy her some time, although it will all be useless, if the _Swords of Revealing Light_ wear off and she still doesn't have any strong monsters to face Rex's _Herra_ , the strongest monster on the field, currently standing at 2300 attack points and backed by two other dinosaurs, each packing 1700 points worth of power. If he manages to tack on even more strong monsters, Lorna is done for.

The girl looks perplexed and Tristan can see her hands shaking again, so he tightens his grip on her shoulders. "Focus, Lorna. I know you can figure this out."

"Hey!" Rex objects from the other side of the field. "You say one more word and it's an automatic forfeit for her. So shut up!" Tristan immediately shuts his mouth, not wanting to risk Lorna losing because of him. Then Rex proceeds to address his opponent, the irritation caused by her hesitation was perfectly evident on his face. "And you need to hurry up and make your move because I don't have all day! I have a tournament to win and you're just wasting my time!"

Lorna looks up at him once more, trying to keep her eyes focused, but Tristan can see her struggling to keep her gaze and she promptly lowers her eyes to the floor again. Her fingers move to the cards in her hand, she takes one of the cards and sets it down on the field. "I'll set one card face down and end my turn," she tells him, though she might as well have been speaking to the ground because her dark eyes still won't meet Rex's hazel ones. Looking like someone who had forgotten where they were and what they were doing, she looks over at Tristan, who nods reassuringly. She gives him half of a smile and turns back towards Rex, closing her eyes as she does so -a temporary relief.

He draws, keeping his wary eyes fixed on his shaken opponent, analyzing her, trying to understand what it is about her that makes him feel so uneasy -what it is about her that makes him feel like this duel is anything _but_ ordinary. Her distant expression makes his heart race in the worst way and he wants with all his soul for this duel to end as quickly as possible. He needs to _win_ this duel as quickly as possible. He leers at her, placing a spell card face up on his duel disk with ardor, his fingers lingering over the card for a couple of seconds as the card materializes in front of him. "You know what this is?" he asks, not waiting for an answer from Lorna, and he was sure that she wouldn't give him one anyway. "It's a card called _Molten Destruction_! This'll give each of my monsters a 500 attack point bonus since they're all fire monsters!"

He watches warily as Lorna's eyes shift between the continuous spell card he had just placed and the attack point counters which had appeared beside his three monsters, however, try as he may, he can't find the hesitation that had originally taken refuge in her solemn eyes. She gestures forward with her hand and a card on her side of the field rises to face up position - _Magic Jammer_... And he doesn't need her explanation to know exactly what that card will do. Dark smoke surrounds the hologram of his spell card and Rex watches in a rage as his card is consumed by the darkness and is immediately destroyed, causing a slight breeze to ruffle his hair.

"Oh, yeah!" he calls out to his unresponsive opponent. He has to admit that this isn't really the most entertaining duel he had ever participated in, as he's much more accustomed to bickering with his opponent (which was going just fine until she decided to freak out on him). "You still have no monsters to protect you!" He glances over at her empty field. There's nothing there other than a face down card and her _stupid_ field-spell card, _Sanctuary in the Sky,_ which protects her life points whenever he obliterated one of her fairies, and she currently has _none_ of those to hide behind this turn. Her face down card? Well, that's no _real_ threat to him considering the fact that she has only one measly card in her trembling little hand. She's obviously placed it as a last resort and, whatever it is, he'll charge right through it and straight to her life points.

"Jurrac Herra! Guaiba! Velo! Attack her life points directly!" He can't help but let out a chuckle at the knucklehead standing behind Lorna as his face sets into a grim line, expecting the worst. _She's toast!_

"No!" she cries out, revealing her face down card, _Swords of Revealing Light._ The field rumbles as Rex's side of the field is showered with several bright swords, which halt his dino monsters' rapid approach and completely immobilizes them.

He lets in a sharp breath and furrows his brows at the sight of his paralyzed monsters, but he retains enough determination to holler at the girl before him. "Those lame swords won't hold back my dinosaurs forever! You think you can get your act together in just three turns?" He lets out a derisive laugh, but it's too tainted by vexation to give off the intended effect. "Just give up _now_ , Schizo!"

Lorna starts her turn by drawing a card from her deck and her life point counter chirps as her card effect activates. Rex fights down the growl building up in his throat and waits to see her next move.

**Rex: 3700**

**Lorna: 2650**

She looks down at the two cards in her hand, blinking her eyes purposefully as she thinks about her next move, but to Tristan's confusion and Rex's relief, she does nothing. Dangling her empty hand down by her side and glancing over at the duel's audience, anything to keep herself from looking at Rex, she says, "Y-Your move." Her voice is less than a whisper and it's a wonder that Rex even hears her.

He smirks at the card he has just drawn; it's one of his favorite monsters, but he can't summon it now without sacrificing two perfectly good monsters, and with Lorna panicking and trying to figure out a strategy, he had a bit of time to prepare. "I'll set a monster in face down defense position and one face down card, then I'll end my turn." He bites his lip anxiously at the thought of having to go through one more boring turn before he can summon his strongest monster. He shifts his gaze over to one of the most important pieces of his strategy, and the very key to his victory, thinking back to how he had managed to score a deck like this to begin with.

It had only been a couple of days before the Battle City tournament and he was adding the finishing touches to his Battle City deck, going from one game shop to the other and looking at all the undiscovered gems that some of the less experienced duelists had overlooked -not that he _needed_ any new cards because he _was_ a duel monsters champion and many a duelist had fallen to the power of his _Serpent Night Dragon,_ so he was fairly certain that he was ready for whatever he would face in the tournament.

He doesn't really know who it was that gave him his Jurrac deck that fateful day, and if he's being completely honest, he still isn't quite sure _what_ it was that gave him his deck. He knows that its a person, even though he hasn't seen physical proof of that fact (they had been wearing a heavy black cloak that darkened their face dramatically and made it impossible to make out their features), but it's not like a giant sea monster or something would be giving him a deck out of nowhere and asking him to use it. He couldn't really complain, though, since he now possessed much stronger monsters than he used to, and if there was a catch, he wasn't aware of it, seeing as the weird guy/person/sea monster gave him the deck without saying a word, leaving only a piece of paper with a cryptic "Good Luck" written upon it in impeccable handwriting.

Just as Rex anticipates, Lorna ends her next turn without making her move, leading up to the final turn of her _Swords of Revealing Light._ She only has one turn left to get her act together or she's a goner, and Rex doubts she'll have anything to rival his new secret weapon, though it may be useless to call it a _secret_ weapon when he's about to unveil it in one of his deck's first test drives. Upon drawing, he realizes that he hasn't drawn the card he needs to defeat her, but with a grin he shrugs off his disappointment; it's only a matter of time before he gets it and that girl won't know what hit her. It's also incredibly entertaining to watch Tristan's face go from worried to irreversibly hopeless behind his friend's back, so prolonging this duel isn't that much of a big deal to Raptor.

He decides to summon another Velo to the field, watching in admiration as it materializes right next to its brother. They squawk to each other enthusiastically before rearing their heads menacingly towards Lorna, a mocking warning to her, and Rex grins thinking, _Perhaps monsters really do take after their masters,_ and he is a master of the great dinosaur species no less.

On his next turn, those pesky swords will go back to where they came from and he'll be able to mop the floor with Lorna. His victory isn't too far off.

Tristan's hands on Lorna's shoulders are now shaking and he's glad she can't see his face because it held no optimism at all, and he doesn't want to reinforce her fears and make the girl even more petrified than she already is. He's not allowed to give her anymore pep-talks either; Rex saw to that soon after he arrived, so he will have to make do with trying to calm himself down and believe in Yugi's training and in Lorna's ability to defeat this guy. She _can_ defeat this guy, right?

Lorna's shoulders stiffen abruptly under her friend's grip, causing the tremors in his hand to travel up his arm and into his body, and it's all he can do not to lose his footing and stumble gracelessly to the ground. He can see Rex observing her guardedly and he wonders what the Dino duelist can see on her face. Though, neither of the boys expect it when Lorna stares straight into Rex's eyes and speaks, her voice ringing as clear as a bell in the plaza, her tone full of confidence and resolve.

**Rex: 3700**

**Lorna: 3050**

"Alrighty, you bag of dicks! No more Mr. Nice Lorna! Let me show you what _real_ dueling is all about!"

Rex staggers almost a foot away from his original stance, his face a vision of pure incredulity, while Tristan chokes out a sigh of relief, his hands relaxing their tension as they grip Lorna.

_Atta girl! Our Lorna is back!_


	11. Extinction

"Thanks, Tristan," I said over my shoulder to the boy who had come to my aid. His hands were holding my shoulders and I suddenly felt uncomfortable with his humid breath on my neck and the intimacy of our positions. I mean, when I fucking said I didn't want to be paired with Tristan, I fucking meant it. I mean, there's nothing wrong with Tristan, but when I say something in chapter two, you'd better believe that I still hold true to it five days later. "You can let go now." I shrugged my shoulders slightly to emphasize my point.

The hands were immediately retracted from my body and I heard a meek "Sorry" from Tristan.

Still, in spite of the awkwardness, Tristan really did help me out with his cheesy and over-the-top friendship display. I had no idea what would have happened to me if he hadn't showed up to calm me down, but I was positive that I would have lost the duel. I wasn't quite sure what had come over me before, but I knew one thing for sure, my hallucinations were getting more and more vivid and grotesque, and I still had to find out why I was even having hallucinations to begin with. If I was going to avoid things like this, I needed to keep a level head and keep myself on guard at all times.

_Ha. I'm_ _doomed._

I glanced at the boy who was my opponent, feeling my heart swell up in frustration at my inability to realize who he was immediately. Rex Raptor. Rex - _fucking- Raptor._ How could I _not_ realize that I had been dueling _him_? I mean, the dinosaurs were a fucking planet-sized tip! He also looked just like Rex Raptor, so that was also a huge giveaway. Well, of course he _looked_ like Rex. I mean, he _was_ Rex... and I'm rambling, but the point is - _Rex Raptor, guys!_

"Well, are you going to make your move or not, Schizo?" my opponent hollered from the other side of the field, his face an ugly sight, and _that_ was not part of my hallucination.

**Rex: 3700**

**Lorna: 3050**

"Hold your horses, dino-breath! I'm thinking up a strategy to whoop your sorry ass back to the stone age!" I hollered right back at him, casting my gaze back down at my cards. This was the last turn of my _Swords of Revealing Light,_ which meant that this turn needed to count because I had _no_ monsters on my side of the field, while he had four, and not only that, but he would also be able to attack me on his next turn. Plus, a card in face down defense mode? That practically _screamed_ 'STRONG MONSTER INCOMING'

I placed one monster card from my hand onto the field and watched as my monster materialized in front of me. "I'm going to special summon my _Airknight Parshath_ to the field!" I declared, glancing over at his _Herra_. Thanks to the effect of _Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen_ , I was allowed to do that without sacrificing a single monster. _Man_ , I loved that card.

It was a huge gamble summoning _Airknight Parshath._ He only had 1900 attack points, so the glance I cast at Rex's monster (2300 attack) was more than a bit tentative. If the look on my face wasn't convincing enough to Rex, the centaur defending my life points was looking more than threatening as it stared down at each one of the dinosaurs opposing him. It may not have had enough attack points to pulverize _Herra_ , but both _Velos_ and _Guaiba_ each had 1700 attack points, and that face down monster didn't seem like a cause to be alarmed either. Maybe I would start with that...

Rex broke out in obnoxious laughter, seemingly dumbstruck by my choice of monster. "That _pony_ is no match for Herra! Or should I add math to the list of things you don't know how to do -right under _duel monsters_!" _Oh, once that little buttface finds out what I have in store for him, he'll be wishing he wore a diaper under those stupid baggy pants of his -if you know what I mean._

"Oh, shut your trap and let me finish my move!" I yelled back at him, making no effort to disguise my irritation with the boy. "Next, I'm going to have my _Airknight Parshath_ attack your face down monster!" I announced, blocking out the sniggering coming from the other side of the field, but it was like the _Happy Tree Friends_ theme tune, impossible to tune out no matter how many pillows you piled over your head, while the excited crowd seemed like gentle ambient noise in comparison.

Rex's monster flipped over, revealing a small, green dinosaur with its legs poking through a broken eggshell that it wore around its waist. _Awww..._ it was the most adorable reptile I had ever seen, and that was a lot coming from someone who despised every lizard, iguana and chameleon in the animal kingdom, and I believe that, at least today, I had seen enough reptiles to last me a lifetime. The small dinosaur looked comically panicky as my centaur raised his blade and ran for the small creature. I didn't picture my _Airknight Parshath_ as a creature with any remote willingness to kill infants, but I suppose he made exceptions for gross lizards, especially if they were controlled by my opponent. The sword went cleanly through the dinosaur's chest, making its image shatter. I almost felt sorry for the little guy. I mean, it would certainly have been more gratifying to see that sword shatter that fatass _Jurrac_ _Herra_ over there, standing all high and mighty, mocking me with its very existence.

**Rex: 2300**

**Lorna: 3050**

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Rex blurted out, watching his life point counter go down with a look on his face that made my heart flutter in one of the purest forms of happiness - _revenge_. "My _Babycerasaurus_ was in defense mode!" he protested, his surprise growing greater with each second. "I shouldn't have lost life points!"

I smirked, fanning myself with the cards in my hand, while looking over at Tristan smugly. I could tell that he was struggling to hold back the triumphant yelp that was caught in his throat. Looking back at poor, confused Rex, I decided to humor him with an explanation. "I guess you don't know _Airknight Parshath's_ special effect," I told him, faux sweetness dripping off of each syllable. "Even if your monster is in defense mode, my _Airknight_ still makes you lose life points. Pretty nifty, eh?" I couldn't shrink the smile on my face even if I wanted to.

"Argh! You'll pay for that!" he growled, shaking his fist at me, and I almost laughed at how pathetic he looked.

"I really hate to kill babies, y'know, but _you_ probably shouldn't leave them defenseless on the field like that," I told him with a pitiful shrug. Then, going straight back to business I added, "My _Airknight_ has one more effect!"

The dino duelist harrumphed, crossing his arms and staring pointedly at me. "Oh, _please_ , tell me..." he said flatly.

"Every time he deals damage to your life points, I get to draw a card!" I reached for my deck and pulled out a card, glancing at it warily. I sighed lightly when I realized that it wasn't the monster that I was waiting for. I guess I needed to stall for time somehow. I looked over at my hand and pulled out a trap card, setting it face down behind my _Airknight Parshath._ "I'll just set this down and end my turn."

Rex rolled his eyes before drawing a card from his deck. He gave the new card a disappointed once over, reassuring me that the strong monster that he was cooking up somewhere in his deck still hadn't made an appearance. He decided to start things off by declaring an attack. Thankfully for me, he only had one card that stood a chance against my _Airknight_ and I had only one trap to stop the advance of his _Herra_.

" _Herra_! Attack her _Airknight Parshath_!" he ordered, and it was the cue for his dinosaur to begin darting towards my monster. Before it could make contact, however, I activated my trap card.

"Not so fast!" I told him as my trap card revealed itself to be _Negate Attack_.

His slightly jubilant grin faded when his monster's flaming attack was repelled by a transparent shield that surrounded _Airknight Parshath_ , who reared up, his front hooves waving scoffingly at the dinosaur. Yes, my friends, holograms really did make everything better.

"You can't hide from my monsters forever! I'll get you next turn!" he warned, hardly even looking at his hand before setting down a third card in the spell/trap zone. His ever growing scowl was doing wonders for my happiness levels. And let me tell you; happiness levels were serious business, guys.

And so it was my turn again. My _Marie the Fallen One_ raised my life points by 200, bringing it up to 3250. The stage was being set for my ultimate monster -whenever it decided to come up in my hand. As I had expected, it wasn't in my hand this turn. Though, I knew one way to bring it out: _Airknight Parshath's_ special ability.

"I think that I'll attack your pesky little _Guaiba_! Go, _Airknight_!" I shouted over the sound of the crowd going wild. Bitches just love me, y'know?

The thrill of finally starting to beat this asshole was making me laugh uncontrollably, and I could only hope that I didn't look hysterical -or at least, anymore hysterical than I already seemed given that I had acted pretty hysterical earlier when I was hallucinating. _Airknight_ demolished that dinosaur and I waited patiently for the beautiful sound of Rex's life point counter decreasing, but it never came.

"Hey! What gives?" I called out.

"I activated _Divine Wrath_!" Rex replied, the grin on his face looking almost rabid as his _Divine Wrath_ smote my monster. "This trap negates any card effect that I want; then it _destroys_ the card!" _Not good. Not good. Not good._

My mouth set into a solemn line as I looked over my hand. I needed to protect my life points and there was nothing there to help me out. Except for maybe...

"I activate _Beckoning Light_!" I exclaimed, setting the trap on the field.

Rex looked taken aback. "What's that supposed to do?"

"Well, I discard all three cards in my hand to the graveyard, and in their place, I can put three light monsters from my graveyard in my hand!" I explained, demonstrating the card effect as I spoke. I chose to return my _Airknight Parshath,_ my _Dancing Fairy_ , and my _Spirit of the Harp._ "And to finish things off, I'll use _Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen_ to special summon my _Airknight Parshath_ back to the field!" The centaur reappeared on the field, more menacing than ever and looking royally pissed off at Rex after his short trip to the graveyard. "Then I'll set one face down monster and end my turn," I told him, setting my _Spirit of the Harp_ down. These high defense cards always took people by surprise for some reason, and that was why I loved them so much.

Sure, it was shitty protection since my monsters were sitting ducks, but I needed to buy time until I got the card I needed. _C'mon,_ Neo-Parshath _! Where are you?_

I watched him draw a card then scowl again. He still hadn't drawn it! I smiled weakly. At least his luck was just as shitty as mine!

"I'll summon another _Jurrac Guaiba_ to the field!"

_Fan-fucking-tastic._ As if I really needed _another_ one of those. I mean, I had just gotten rid of that fucktrumpet only to have him summon it again! Now he had two _Velos,_ a _Guaiba_ and a _Herra,_ and each of them packed a punch! Not to mention those trap cards he had behind his monsters...

" _Herra_ , attack that oversized pony!"

_Oh, I'll show you oversized pony, you little dick._

Needless to say, my _Airknight_ was blasted to pieces. However, when he decided to target my _Spirit of the Harp_ with his _Velo,_ he was wonderfully surprised by the fact that its attack was 300 points lower than my monster's defense. Serves him right...

"I activate _Return Damage_! Now _you_ lose the 300 points of damage that I would have lost!"

_Shit..._

**Rex: 2300**

**Lorna: 2950**

I was still in the lead, though, so even if I had no monsters on my side of the field, I still had a chance to win this. I mean, I hoped I still had a chance to win this, because I couldn't afford to lose, for reasons that I still didn't know. Like, you'd think that I'd be more motivated to win if I actually knew what I was fighting for. That mysterious voice had been awfully quiet for a while now... I wondered what it wanted from me...

_Lorna! You're in the middle of a duel! You can think about this later!_

I started off my turn by gaining another 200 life points. Man, I loved _Marie the Fallen One._ I drew a card. _Pot of Greed._ Still not _Neo-Parshath._ Damn it! Where was he when I fucking needed him? Still, with _Pot of Greed_ , there was still a chance that I could draw _Neo-Parshath._ I tried my luck again by activating my spell, only to draw _Black Pendant_ and _Gravity Bind._

_Black Pendant_ was an equip spell card, which would be all fine and dandy - _if I fucking had anything to equip it to_! Of course, I still had _Dancing Fairy_ in my hand with 1700 attack points, but equipping it with _Black Pendant_ (raising it up to 2200) wouldn't help me defeat _Herra_ , sadly. _Gravity Bind_ was pretty useless at the moment. It's effect made it so that only monsters with 3 stars or less could attack, and this could stop all of Rex's monsters in their tracks, but it would also be counterproductive considering the fact that _Neo-Parshath_ wouldn't be able to attack either ( _whenever I fucking got him)._

After a moment's thought, I decided to summon _Dancing Fairy_ and equip _Black Pendant_ to it. Sure, it couldn't defeat _Herra,_ but it could still kick that Guaiba's ass over to its brother over in the card graveyard.

"Oh, look! Your baby fairies are back -so I can torch them again!" Rex said with an evil glimmer in his eye.

_Oh, it's on like Donkey Kong, motherfucker._

_…_

_Not that it_ hasn't _been on like Donkey Kong before, but you know..._

"Shut up! I'm going to destroy you and all your oversized chickens! Just you wait!" I retorted, feeling my cheeks burn up in frustration -and maybe _burn_ wasn't the best word... Shaking my head and getting my head back in the duel, I announced loudly, "I'm gonna have my _Dancing Fairy_ attack your _Guaiba_!" The three fairies didn't hesitate to obey me, fluttering over to the glorified lizard and showering it with sparkly magic, but it was _deadly_ sparkly magic which made it totally badass sparkly magic as opposed to harmless, lame sparkly magic.

**Rex: 1800**

**Lorna: 3150**

He let out an exasperated sigh and glared at me. "My turn!" he declared.

"Do your worst!" I taunted, but I didn't _really_ mean it. If he wanted to go easy on me -hey, he could even surrender if he wanted -I would be totally okay with it.

"Oh, I will!" he replied, grinning at the card he had just drawn.

Oh, great. He drew it. That was probably the strongest monster in his deck, the Regina George of all of his monsters. I was probably doomed unless I figured something out soon...

_No pressure, Lorna._

"Now, I'm going to summon the last duel monster you'll _ever_ see!" he called out.

Yeah, since I was friends with Yugi Muto, that was highly unlikely. Rex was off of his game when it came to taunts like this...

"By sacrificing my two _Jurrac Velos_ , I'm going to bring out my almighty _Jurrac Spinos_!" he hollered loud enough to let even the people dueling on the other side of the plaza know that I was screwed. The two tiny _Velos_ descended into the ground as sacrifices while another, stronger beast rose up in their stead. The monster that rose out of the ground was a colorful little thing with a huge blaze trailing down its spine. It wasn't as tall as I thought it would be, however, it made a point of roaring loudly to assert its strength and demand our fear and respect -and with 2600 attack points, it probably deserved that fear and respect.

I grunted as a gust of wind whirled around me, like an ominous fanfare to announce the arrival of _Spinos._ Stupid virtual simulators..

" _Spinos, Herra,_ attack her monsters!" Rex looked absolutely over-the-moon, like he had this victory in the bag. Well, he wouldn't win, not so long as I still had some fight in me!

I braced myself for the wild windstorm that was about to come from the destruction of my monsters. The two dinosaurs sprinted over to my fairies, making my heart ache at the thought of having a completely empty field. _Herra_ scorched _Spirit of the Harp_ , causing her to cry out in pain before shattering under the force of the attack, and at around the same time, _Spinos_ murdered my _Dancing Fairy._

Suddenly, a monster began to appear on my side of the field. It looked like a miniature of _Jurrac Spinos_ and it was _mine_. But how?

"You're welcome!" Rex said, leering at me over the cards in his hand.

"What _is_ that?" I asked.

"It's a _Spinos Token_. Every time _Jurrac_ _Spinos_ destroys one of _your_ monsters, you get a _Spinos Token._ "

But that meant that my _Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen_ was useless... It let me special summon any fairy from my hand, granted I had _no other monsters_ on my side of the field. How would I summon _Neo-Parshath_ now? Summoning him with _Airknight Parshath_ was now out of the question, and seeing as it would be _really_ hard to secure two sacrifices for him, it wouldn't be easy to normal summon him either.

**Rex: 1300**

**Lorna: 3150**

I heard Rex sigh in frustration. "What is it _this_ time?" he asked, rubbing his head and directing his vision towards me for an explanation.

" _Black Pendant's_ effect," I told him. "When it's sent to the graveyard, my opponent loses 500 life points!" I wanted to smile impishly at him, but all I could think about was how he had gotten his ace card and mine _still_ wasn't popping up.

It was a small relief in the face of such fierce monsters that my _Marie the Fallen One_ was still giving me 200 life points each turn. I tentatively reached towards my deck in order to draw, hoping and _praying_ to get a good card. I decided to shut my eyes tightly and _beg_ the Heart of the Cards to show me a miracle like it did during my duel with Joey. Holding the card tightly in front of my face, I slowly opened my eyes. _The Agent of Judgment - Saturn..._

Damn it, Heart of the Cards! You had _one_ job! _One_ fucking job!

I took a moment to collect my thoughts and considered my options, then I realized something wonderful: _The Agent of Judgment's_ effect! If my life points were greater than my opponent's, I could sacrifice _Saturn_ to deal damage to my opponent equal to the difference in life points -and I had _more_ than double the life points he had! This was an instant win for me! Plus, _The Agent of Judgment_ only required one sacrifice, with which Rex so generously provided me.

"I'm going to sacrifice your _Spinos Token_ to summon _The Agent of Judgment - Saturn_!" The materialization of _Saturn_ was absolutely _glorious._ He rose from the ground, standing stiffly and confidently, his robe billowing around his legs, and I didn't even mind the wind effects that the simulators hit me with.I also learned something totally new since, apparently, _Saturn_ turned out to be a guy. Yeah, I kinda thought he was a girl because of the whole robe and all, but uh... he could be a guy, too... _especially if he's a sorta hot guy_ -but I... erm... I probably wouldn't tell anyone that I was perving on my monster. That was probably frowned upon. Too bad I was about to sacrifice him...

"That's still too weak to-" Rex began to say, but I cut him off abruptly.

"I'm not planning on attacking your monsters!" I informed him. "I'm about to activate my _Agent's_ special ability and wipe out the rest of your life points!"

"What-"

"I have 2050 more life points than you, don't I?" I asked in a dulcet tone, watching in sick pleasure as his face twisted in realization. " _Saturn_! Finish him off!"

"Hold on!" he exclaimed, activating a spell card just as _Saturn_ reached his pathetic, trembling form. "I activate _Emergency Provisions_!" My eyes widened. I recognized that card. He could use it to gain 1000 life points for each spell or trap card he discards from him side of the field, but by the looks of it, he only had one. Still, one was enough to leave him in the game -barely. Unfortunately, he had two strong monsters, and I just sent my _Saturn_ (my really attractive _Saturn_ ) to the grave.

**Rex: 250**

**Lorna: 3350**

Thinking fast, I did the only thing I could do. I activated my _Gravity Bind._ I wasn't going to lose this duel no matter what!

"You _moron_!" Rex called out when he saw what I had just activated. "Now, _neither_ of us can attack!"

"Nope," I replied. "We can't -unless we get a 3 star monster or lower."

When Rex's turn came, the boy had no choice but to end his turn without doing a single thing, mumbling what seemed to be profanities under his breath, and in less than two minutes, it was my turn again.

"C'mon Heart of the Cards..." I murmured so quietly that I doubted even Tristan heard me. He had long since decided to secure a distance of at least two feet between us and I was pretty sure that was for the best.

Little by little, I was decreasing Rex's life points and going around his monsters. Perhaps I really could beat him; after all, he had less than 300 life points. Yugi may have been able to win a duel with even less life points than that, but this was Rex Raptor and _not_ Yugi Muto, so I highly doubted he could find a way out of this pickle. Besides, my whole deck was based on life points and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I drew an Ookazi or something to finish him off once and for all.

I reached for my deck and grabbed the card on top swiftly, almost as though something inside me honestly believed that a swift draw would give me a good monster.

_The Agent of Force – Mars._

I stared hard at the card in my hand, feeling my heart rate speed up.

This was it.

This was the card that would lead me to victory.

On its own, _Mars_ was a 3 star monster with zero attack and defense points, but as long as I had _The Sanctuary in the Sky_ on the field, it had a very special ability. As long as my life points were greater than my opponent's, _Mars_ would gain attack points equal to the difference, which in this case, was a whopping 3300 attack points.

I summoned it to the field, calling out its name with fervor and pride and I almost thought that if I felt any happier, my chest would swell up and explode. " _The Agent of Force – Mars -_ I summon you!" He rose to take the spot his fallen brother, _Saturn_ , had been standing in previously, hammer in hands and his wings flapping majestically behind his muscular form. If you looked closely, you could almost see _Spinos_ and _Herra's_ scared asses shivering in fear at the sight of him. Even the crowd around us seemed impressed. Gawrsh, I was feeling a bit bashful now... _but_ it wasn't the time to be bashful since I still had to wipe out the rest of Rex's life points.

"Alright, _Mars_! Destroy _Jurrac Spinos_!" I called out to my monster.

The beating of his wings became much stronger as he made his way over to _Spinos_ and demolished it, taking whatever was left of Rex's life points with it.

See? I told you that dickwad was going down.

**Rex: 0**

**Lorna: 3550**

The holograms began to fade away and the two devices which had ejected earlier were retreating back inside my duel disk, as were the ones on Rex's side and I took this as my cue to walk over to my fallen opponent. He was down on his knees now, crushed, and as much as I despised him during my duel with him, I couldn't help but feel a bit of sympathy for him -plus, my hate and competitiveness usually tended to go away as soon as the duel was over.

"You okay?" I asked gently, with no sign of the sarcasm and mockery that had been in my voice earlier, and knelt down beside him.

His fists were firmly on the ground and his arms were quivering under his weight. His face was turned away from me, but I had a pretty good idea of what he looked like. Mortified. Angry. Disappointed.

"Just take them..." His voice was less than a whisper.

"What?"

Without warning, a transparent card -the locator card – and a _Jurrac Spinos_ were tossed my way. I scrambled down to catch them before they got too dusty or got picked up and carried away by the wind. That would certainly be a waste of a well-played duel, wouldn't it?

After that, my opponent got to his feet, towering above my crouching figure. "I'll beat you next time, Schizo!" he cried out, without a single bit of his fire lost. "Just you wait!"

_Wait. Did he just call me "Schizo"?_


	12. Spilling the Beans

"Looks like Yugi really helped you out!" Tristan remarked, putting his hands in his pant pockets as the two of us strolled through the town. "I mean, I gotta admit that you had me scared a couple of times." He threw his head back in hearty laughter, paying me and the offended expression on my face no mind. How dare he doubt me! I'll have you know that I was trained by the motherflipping -pause for dramatic effect- King of Games.

"Well," I replied, elongating the word as I said it. _Initiating the Lorna bullshit application_. "It really was nothing... I mean, I'm just a natural at card games, be they Uno or Go Fish..." I rambled on. Lies. I sucked at Uno and Go Fish -and, while we're at it, every other card game in the whole world.

Apparently, Tristan's mind wasn't completely with my idle chatter, and who could blame him; my own mind was hardly paying attention to my word vomit. "Hey, Lorna?" he asked, arching his back slightly to look down at me.

I glanced up, immediately putting an end to my rant in order to listen to what my friend had to say. "Yeah?"

He sighed and looked away from me for a moment thoughtfully before speaking. Then it came -the question from which I wanted to stay at least fifty meters away. "What exactly happened with you during your duel with Rex? Why were you screaming?"

I frowned and pursed my lips, trying to think of a good way to successfully avoid that question. It's not like he could really help me even if he did know. I was sent here, told to learn _something_ from Yugi and save the world, and I was expected to do this successfully. I mean, if they asked _me_ to do it, then I must have been somewhat capable, as I doubted people with mystical powers chose their world saviors without thinking about whether or not these chosen ones could actually save the world. "I'm scared of dinosaurs," I told him finally, averting my eyes and digging my nails into the rough skin covering my left elbow.

Hey, it was a reasonable fear! Fear of the unknown, fear of things that died billions of years ago. Reasonable.

The look on Tristan's face told me he wasn't buying it though, and who could blame him? "You didn't look scared of the dinosaurs; you looked scared of _him_. Lorna, what's going on with you?" My lips set in a straight line and I didn't say a word, trying to weasel my way out of this way. He had already caught me in a lie, so trying another lie wasn't going to help me much. "Téa told me about the other day," he added when he saw that I wasn't about to speak anytime soon.

Taken aback, I look up wide-eyed at my friend "What other day?"

"The day you went shopping with Téa," he clarified, looking right back at me with an unreadable expression on his face. "She said you blanked out for _five_ minutes."

"And what does that prove?" I snapped at him before he could say anything else. It wasn't like spacing out meant anything... Besides, I happened to space out quite often, and it didn't mean anything. There was _nothing_ wrong with me. Okay, so I saw a little girl dying... that might have been a tiny bit unorthodox, but I could handle it. I was _supposed_ to handle it, and I would. I had a mysterious voice counting on me, even if it did abandon me.

_Bitch move right there, Voice._

I heard Tristan let out a long and exasperated sigh, which made my tighten my jaw and set my gaze to the ground, waiting for him to speak. "You didn't just blank out, Lorna. You were saying stuff. And if I'm taking Téa's word for it, pretty scary stuff."

I felt a pang in my chest at the thought of it. _Saying stuff?_ Stuff like what? Why would I even be speaking unconsciously? Or, more importantly, why wasn't I told about this earlier? Couldn't Téa have spared me a word or to concerning my very strange behavior? I mean, obviously it was note-worthy if Téa went and told Tristan about it, and who else had she told? Yugi? Joey?

Well, _of course_ she told them. How much more stupid could I possibly be? They probably thought I was crazy or demented or possessed... And God bless Tristan and his big mouth or I probably wouldn't have found out at all. I just would have thought that at least _one_ of them would have approached me with this information sooner.

"What kind of... stuff?" I asked, trying not to sound majorly pissed off and stopping in my tracks, my legs giving up on carrying me any further... or was that just my brain? To tell you the truth, I couldn't really trust my limbs anymore since they decided doing things involuntarily was a thing. I mean, I somewhat get talking in my sleep, but _this_...

Tristan turned on his heel to face me, and for the first time, I could see the expression he was wearing, a look of concern and anxiety among other things.

_Could he possibly be scared?_ For _me? Or_ of _me?_

"You kept saying 'Stop' or something... I mean, I wasn't there so..." The boy trailed off, averting his dark brown orbs from my own probing eyes. I suddenly became aware of the tension in my brow and brought my hands up to my face, rubbing the tightness away. "I just can't help but feel like this and your duel with Rex..." He paused to recall the point he was trying to make, his eyes shutting tightly for a moment, then relaxing as he brought his gaze back to me. "They weren't a coincidence, were they?"

I wasn't sure how to answer him, because as far as I knew, a coincidence was exactly what they were. "Well, I don't know anything about this," I insisted, crossing my arms over my chest. "Any reason why Téa isn't asking about that day herself?"

This question caught Tristan off guard and the look on his face reeked of pity and it left me with a bad taste in his mouth. I survived a coma, so perhaps he could keep his pity to himself. "Y-You had no idea," he sputtered. "We thought it would be best if we told Yugi first and figured things out -"

Then I realized exactly what this was about and tightened my fists around the hem of the new black top I was wearing. _Sorry, shirt._ "You didn't trust me enough to tell me about this?" I asked him, holding back tears and trying to prevent my voice from becoming raspy.

"That's not it!" Tristan cried out in objection, his voice firmer than it had been before. "Hear me out before jumping to stupid conclusions like that, Lorna!" he scolded.

I set my lips in a straight line, swallowing back the lump that was growing in my throat, and gestured with my hand as if to say, "Go on." I guess he was right and I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions, but I was still pretty new to the whole friendship deal. I wasn't a loner when I was in my world, but I wasn't exactly everyone's go-to girl.

He sighed and composed himself before beginning his explanation. "What I mean is that we didn't want you freak out about this -at least, not yet."

Deciding that it would be best to go about this in a mature way rather than childishly try to make a bad guy out of Tristan, I replied curtly. "Thanks, but I can handle it." I felt a bit bad, not only for snapping at Tristan, but also for pushing him away, but there was no way he'd be able to understand what was going on with me; there was no way any of my friends would be able to understand. Even I wasn't so sure what was going on with me.

"We want to help you, Lorna." Oh, don't say my name so pathetically like that.

"Well, you can't, okay," I replied sharply, trying not to sound too hostile, but I don't think my mouth was really agreeing with my brain -can't say that was a first.

My friend began to scowl and I could sense the frustration building up inside of him from the way his back had gotten rigid and his hands were struggling to stay put. "Why not?" His tone showed restraint and I realized that, if I were Joey, I probably would have been punched in the face ages ago.

"There is no way you guys could even begin to understand!" I argued back and with a long sigh, I decided to give him the information he wanted and see exactly where he would go with it. "You really wanna know what's going on?" I watched his eyes widen; he had no doubt expected me to be tight-lipped for the rest of the argument. Well, he was definitely in for a twisted little treat. "That day when I went out with Téa, I didn't just space out. I followed a little girl into the street and watched her stand in the way of a speeding truck." I winced at the memory -the sound of tinkling bells as she laughed -the loud crack when the truck finally made impact.

"Why didn't say any-"

I continued to speak, paying his question no mind. "Just a few minutes ago, you watched me have a nervous breakdown in front of dozens of people for no reason..." I stopped speaking to rub away the goosebumps that were brought out by the oozing red on Rex's neck, slipping between his fingers and trailing down his shirt. How could I possibly get an image like that out of my head? How was I supposed to believe that all that was just my imagination?

"What did you see, Lorna?" Tristan asked quietly so as not to startle me from my recollection.

I brought my arms back down to my sides and responded to his question, sparing him the gruesome details that I would have to live with for a long time. "He was committing suicide."

I watched the realization on Tristan's face as my words registered in his mind and I felt worse and worse with every moment that passed. I still hadn't told him about the nightmare I had just last night, but I hadn't even begun to process that dream or its implications myself. For now, it was just a creepy dream induced by my confusion and fear, but I would have to deal with it sooner or later, and I was beginning to think that it would end up being sooner rather than later.

"Let us help you," he finally said after a moment of heavy silence and the sounds of people passing us by as we stood in the middle of the sidewalk. "I can tell you don't understand anything, but we can help you. Maybe Yami knows something. He's like three thousand years old or something so..." And there it was again. _Yami_. What the _hell_ would Yami know? He didn't even know who he was for fuck's sake!

"What could you possibly do?" I asked hopelessly, shaking my head.

"You can't do this alone. You need friends to help you see the bigger picture, and five heads are better than one. Trust me." Tristan gave me an awkward smile, and I could tell he was trying to lighten the mood, and he did not know just how much I wanted the mood to be lighter, but I couldn't bring myself to smile back.

"You're forgetting something," I informed him. "I've already seen the bigger picture. Three seasons of it."

"What -" Then he remembered exactly what I meant. "You know... everything," he said more to remind himself than to remind me. I watched the resolve fade from his eyes as he tried to think of a way to counter that.

Letting out a long sigh, I decided to end the conversation for both of our sakes and stepped towards Tristan, putting a friendly hand on his shoulder as I said, "You probably shouldn't be late to see Serenity."

He nodded slowly and plastered on a weak grin. "You sure you don't need moral support?"

I let out a small giggle. "I can handle myself," I told him. "Besides, Serenity needs you more than I do, and she's probably waiting for you."

"Y-Yeah." He blushed and I knew he was imaging her waiting for him on that hospital bed and giving him that 1000 watt Wheeler smile. I was happy for him; at least he wasn't going to be alone.

Speaking of being alone, maybe I could call Joey or Yugi just to check up on them later, since they had told me to call them whenever I felt like it, but for now, maybe it was too early. I decided to wait until I at least had half of the required locator cards so I could at least have something to brag about when I talked to them. "If you're any later, you might miss telling Serenity about Joey's first duel," I reminded Tristan when I saw that he still hadn't departed.

"How did you-"

I gave my friend a pointed look, placing my hands on my hips. _Really, Tristan?_

Then he gasped and threw his head back in laughter. "Oh, right. The bigger picture!"

The smirk on my face turned into a fullout grin. "Yeah! Anyway, I'll see you soon, Tristan," I told him, taking a few steps backwards in the direction I was planning on heading.

"Will you?" he asked slyly.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "I hope so. Bye!" I called out as I turned around and began to jog away from him, smiling when I heard him throw me a goodbye.

Once I was finally alone, I decided to take a break, leaning against the wall of some sort of café to shut my eyes and think. Now, if what I told Tristan a few moments ago was the truth and not something I pulled right out of my ass to get rid of him, then Joey's duel with Espa Roba would be right about now, which meant that Yugi was... I winced, racking my brain for information. I guess you could say my memories of Battle City were a bit hazy, though I knew for a fact that Yugi had already defeated his first Rare Hunter, which also meant that he had already met Marik in a way.

I kind of hoped that I could just put Yugi and his friends in a protective little bubble because, though I may have forgotten all the little details of Battle City, I could still recall one duel in particular -the duel where Marik took over Joey's mind. If I could at least protect them from that, then I would feel like I had actually managed to do something with my knowledge, which had thus far been useless. How would I go about doing that, though? I couldn't even remember how Marik got his hands on Téa and Joey to begin with.

_Ugh, Lorna. You are truly one of God's most useless creatures._

Well, I was hardly going to accomplish anything by standing around and thinking about stopping Marik. I needed to get out there and look for the little bastard. First things first; I had to figure out where Bakura was since, to my recollection, he was the first to meet the kid in person. And what next? Well, I would cross that bridge when I got to it.

As I opened my eyes and pushed away from the wall, I was still trying to make my _very well thought out_ plan sound good in my head, because human instinct would tell you that actually searching for a highly dangerous sociopath was not exactly a sane life decision, though if you read enough fanfiction, you'd realize that Bakura was more likely to fuck you than actually kill you, so maybe I didn't have all that much to worry about anyway.

"Hi there!"

The face that appeared before me out of nowhere startled the saliva into my throat, causing me to let out a series of noisy coughs, coating the poor guy's face with spittle, but he was asking for it with the way he popped up like that. It took me around a minute to pull myself together and get a good look at his face to realize that he wasn't actually someone I knew.

"Who the _fuck_ are you?" I asked, my voice still sounding a bit raspy from the coughing. It hurt like hell, so I would advise that guy to have a good reason for scaring the shit out of me.

All it took was him speaking again for me to realize just how close this guy was standing; his face would be a couple of inches away from mine were he not so much taller than me, and I wasn't just calling him tall because I was short. No, this guy was tall even by normal-sized peoples' standards and his boyish, stubble-covered face was framed by shaggy black hair "The name's Zephyr."

Call me stupid, but the first thing that came out of my mouth when he told me that was: "Is that your _real_ name?"

The boy... No, _man_... No, _man-boy._.. Well, he was definitely older than twenty, but he didn't _look_ like a man. You feel me? I digress... The man-boy threw his head back laughing at my question, giving me a bit of relief from the closeness of his face and the feel of his hot breath on my face.

"You're funny, Lorna!"

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

_Wait._

Wait.

"Wait." My eyes widened and I stared awestruck at his face. "You know my name?"

The smile Zephyr gave me was mocking, kind of like the smile you put on when you remembered an inside joke in public. "I know a lot of things."

J _ust who was this guy?_


	13. Caffeine Crash

"So do you wanna get some coffee?" the young man asked, gesturing with his thumb in the direction of the nearby coffee shop, and at the mention of coffee, my stomach began to twitch, ache and groan, and judging by that knowing smirk on Zephyr's face, he was well aware of how hungry I was.

I thought for a moment about resisting and demanding answers first, but my stomach lurched in protest and I had no choice but to accept his offer. "Are you buying?" I asked, tilting my head back to look at him properly.

"Naturally, as a gentleman would," he reassured me, his mocking smirk still fixed on his face. I wasn't sure whether to be irritated that he was smirking at me, or really attracted, but I figured that if I was to have _any_ reaction, some healthy suspicion would probably be more fitting. Of course, my hormones weren't up to listening to my brain -typical.

I bit back a giggle and blushed, looking down at my feet.

_Fuck you, Lorna._

_Fuck you to infinity and beyond._

"Well, I don't see why not," I told him in that really annoying voice that decides to rear its insidious little head whenever girls talked to attractive people.

_God fucking dammit, Lorna._

I watched his smirk transform itself into a toothy grin as he stepped backwards, and in that moment I was positive that he _knew -_ Oh, he _knew_ I was attracted to him, and that made this whole situation much worse, because I quite literally had elevator music stuck in my head and was in no condition to make conversation with him, especially very important conversation that required me to be thinking about my fate rather than how _blue_ his eyes looked.

Wait! I knew _exactly_ how to forget about the sudden revelation of my attraction to this possibly evil man; all I had to do was think about my first love, _the Triple Mocha Latté._

_Too much caffeine,_ you say?

Well, I say there's no such thing!

The Muto household had left me so caffeine-deprived that you could actually watch as bits and pieces of my soul were eaten away at even without the help of a Shadow Game, and the perpetrator was Yugi's mother, who insisted that caffeine was the reason I was so short, and ardently insisted that I refrain from consuming any more of that "slow and poisonous poison", and I wondered why my height even bothered her so much, or why she bothered to call a poison poisonous. Needless to say, the scent of coffee dancing into my nostrils was like exotic sirens luring me seductively into their lair, and I was definitely seduced; I mean, I may profess to be on the straighter side, but if coffee were a woman, I would do her _all night long_ with Céline Dion playing softly in the background.

The only coherent thought on my mind was "Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. Coffee." as I walked over to the café like a brains-deprived zombie on steroids -and that was putting it lightly, for I nearly tore down the establishment, barging through the glass entrance with enough gusto to fuel a man like Maximillion Pegasus for a whole minute. I wasn't sure what became of Zephyr all throughout this outburst, but at the present, I couldn't give two shits about Mr Smirky and his magical name-knowing abilities.

Once I made it to the counter of the café, which just so happened to be called _Squarebucks_ if that four-foot long sign behind the cashier was any indication, I came to the realization that I was completely broke and unable to buy the breathtaking Triple Mocha Latté I had been having erotic daydreams about for the past couple of minutes, and it elicited from my lips one of the heaviest sighs I had ever let out in my seventeen years of life, so I opted to simply seat myself until I could have the fucking irresistible piece of coffee royalty that was the Triple Mocha Latté bought for me by someone who could actually afford it.

Watching my acquaintance make his way to the counter, sending me cautious glances every so often, I pulled my shoulder bag onto my lap and examined the contents, confirming the nonexistence of my wallet. I mean, what good was a fucking purse if I was fucking broke?

As I pondered upon the unfairness of life, I found the subject of my wildest wet dreams thrust before my very eyes on the small table I had been sitting at, standing erectly before me and smelling of chocolate, fuckloads of caffeine, and most of all -hot, _hot_ sex on a beach under the moonlight.

No, being sexually attracted to coffee is not weird.

Shut up.

I hesitantly reached down, feeling the warmth emanating from the beverage, feeling electricity run through my body, excitement at this moment I had been awaiting for so long, the reunion of two lost lovers after an eternity of darkness and strife. My skin made contact with the paper cup, pain shooting up my arm at the touch -a burn.

_Why do you have to hurt me like this, baby?_

I clapped my hands together, rubbing them against each other and massaging my burnt palms slowly.

_I thought what we had was special, but I guess I'm just another customer to you, right?_

I felt my eyes tear up at the pain, and don't be fooled -the pain was indeed the very ache as my heart split in two at such devastating rejection, and it had absolutely nothing to do with my scorched hands and the light red that spread over my palms. I reached with shaky hands towards the straw on the table, unsheathing it from its paper cover and piercing into the top of the cup, dealing it the vengeance it was due and making it feel the physical equivalent of the sheer agony it had caused me in my heart.

As I leaned down to take a sip from the boiling hot drink through the straw, I heard someone clear their voice and shut my eyes tightly in irritation, deciding that whoever that was would rue the day he decided to interrupt my moment with my Triple Mocha Latté.

"So..."

My head shot up mechanically and my eyes bore laser beams into his skull so hot that he should have been thanking God that looks _couldn't_ in fact kill or he'd have been nothing more than bits and pieces of a once-functioning brain scattered around a filthy café floor with nobody to thank but his own insolence.

"Yes," I spat at him, my index finger and thumb tightening around the slim straw I had been attempting to drink with, gathering all my restraint in order to keep myself from flinging the object straight into the young man's steadily beating heart, piercing his fragile skin in the process.

Zephyr caught my bloodthirsty stare and exhaled heavily, setting his elbows down on the table and hunching his back. "I'll just wait until you finish that..."

_Wise decision, young mortal._

It took around ten minutes of small sips, long inhales of the heavenly scent, and wanton moaning for me to fully empty out the eight inch monster of a drink, and I found myself shivering in excitement and breathing heavily as I stared at the empty cup standing on the table, still bearing the deceitful scent of coffee, even after I had had my way with it.

"You done with that?"

I glanced up at the speaker slowly, my eyes meeting up with his deep blues, but the harshness my eyes held before had died down and Zephyr could now look at me without having parts of his soul disintegrate in the process. I called _that_ progress.

"Why yes. Yes, I am done with that." I slid the cup over to the center of the table, dismissing it since it no longer held that warmth I had been craving for almost a week. Before Zephyr could say anything in response, I spoke up again. "Tell me what you know and how you know it before I walk out of here one Mocha Latte richer and leave you here all alone wondering where it all went wrong."

The look that the young man gave me was priceless. "Wait; what?" I watched him bite his lip slightly then shake his head, ruffling his dark, shaggy mop of hair before raising a hand as though to say "Forget about it" before carrying on. "Do you believe in the concept each living creature having a soul?" he asked.

I raised an eyebrow, but thought quite seriously about the question nonetheless, recalling every instance where I had actually given anything spiritual any serious thought. Being raised by two self-proclaimed hippies. I guess you could say I grew up with a very spiritual mindset, even though my parents weren't exactly the most religious of people. They always told me that, though the living creatures all lived differently, were designed differently, they all shared the same earth, the same sky and the same soul. They told me that we were all connected to the earth and that "her" pain was our pain, which meant that you didn't really need me to tell you that my parents were the environmentalist type.

I suppose I always took what my parents said for what it was, but I never actually thought about it enough to build a firm opinion on the matter. Did I care about the environment and all the animals (except reptiles -those sneaky little fuckers)? Yes, of course I did. Did I actually believe in half of the things my parents taught me? Well, I wasn't so sure.

"Lorna?"

"I don't know..." I replied silently, feeling a bit down that I couldn't answer that question confidently and in exactly the way my parents would have wanted me to. It was like the _simplest thing_ my parents wanted me to believe in wouldn't even stick in my mind. "Do you?" I shot back, trying not to look at him with that pathetic look that I was absolutely certain was gracing my face at that moment.

Shutting his eyes for a moment, Zephyr nodded his head once and smiled at me. "I didn't before though."

"Before what?" I asked.

"Before I came here." I had a feeling that by _here_ , he didn't just mean Domino City, Japan.

"Where were you before you came here?" And was he the one that brought me here? Did he know who brought me here?

He tilted his head to the side, silently contemplating what his next words would be and I felt my heart rate spike, not sure what to expect. Why wouldn't he just come out and say it?

"I came from a different dimension..." he said and then directed his gaze at the empty Latte cup on the table in front of him, waiting for this new information to sink in.

_Another dimension?_

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What do you think it means, Lorna?" He looked like he was at a loss for words, unable to clarify his words beyond that point, but that shit wouldn't fly by me.

"Don't fuck with me Zephyr," I threatened, glaring at him and leaning back in my seat.

What was I supposed to think? What was I supposed to get from his words? Who was-

"Holy shit..." I gasped, covering my lips with my hand and putting the other hand on my leg, nails digging into my thigh nervously as I tried to process what he was implying. "You mean... we're the same? I'm not the only one here?"

He shook his head, looking relieved that I had finally understood the meaning behind his words. "What made you think you were the only one?"

"Well..." He was kinda right. How unlikely was it that I, _of all people_ , would be the only person in Domino City to have come from a different dimension? How pretentious of me to think that I was special in any way. "Do you also have to save the world so you can wake up and go home?"

There was disbelief on Zephyr's face among other things and I waited for him to speak because I couldn't bring myself to wonder what his expressions were saying. "Wake up? Lorna, there _is_ no waking up from this," replied quietly as though he didn't want me to hear what he was saying; I still did. I heard every word.

"I'm in a coma, Zephyr. That's why I'm here. I have to save everyone so I can go home," I insisted, clutching my pant legs in my fists. My brain refused to work, refused to register these ideas -the idea that I was stuck here forever -the idea that I would never wake up.

Zephyr shook his head solemnly and silently, looking straight into my eyes. I could see regret and pain washing over his face and I did all I could to make myself believe that he was wrong about me and that he and I were completely different, but the look in his eyes told me that he knew much more about our situation than he was telling me.

"Why was I -" I paused after realizing my mistake and started the sentence all over again. "Why were _we_ sent here? Are there more of us?"

With a grave nod, he replied, "There are more of us. I've only met one other, but who's to say there aren't any others running around here. Though, as to why we were brought here... Doc told me pretty much the same thing he told you."

"Doc?" I asked puzzled at the mention of this person that Zephyr obviously thought had communicated with me as well as him. Wait... "Are you talking about that weird voice in my head?"

"Yeah..." he confirmed, drawing out the syllable for a little while before continuing to speak. "I called him 'Doc' since I kinda thought he was a doctor at first... and it just stuck since I didn't really have anything else to call him -"

"How did you know it was a _he_?" As far as I knew, Voice's gender was as ambiguous as the gender of a newborn infant -assuming you weren't looking at the genitals like a proper pedobear... or a pediatrician.

Zephyr tilted his head up thoughtfully, then looked back at me with a shrug. "I just thought he seemed like a guy, though, now that you mention it, it could be a girl, too -" His gaze trailed over to the window and then his brow furrowed in anxiety, his eyes narrowing, and he spoke in a tone that had lost all of its former lightness. " _Shit..._ "

I looked through the window, following his gaze only to see normal people passing by the café and going about their own business. What had he just seen?

"Zephyr?"

The young man shot to his feet and grabbed my arm from across the table, dragging gruffly me up to my feet as well. What gives? I fidgeted in his grasp, trying to free my arm from the long fingers trying to dig tunnels into my skin; his nails were _definitely_ going to leave a mark

"Listen," he hissed, tugging me closer to him and mumbling against my ear. "If you want to live another day, you're gonna have to follow me as closely as you can. If you fall behind, I won't go back for you." What a reassuring thought, but what were we running from anyway?

I held my tongue before attempting to ask about that because Zephyr was dashing for the door to the café and I didn't want to end up with whatever was chasing us, because if the look on my companion's face was any indication, they probably weren't looking for some friendly negotiation; they wanted to hurt us.

I was never a good runner, and the danger that we were so obviously in was making my heart beat much faster than it was accustomed to, and after less than five minutes of running, I could feel my sides aching with fatigue. I suppose I couldn't very well expect any more from someone who spent all her free time watching TV shows online and blogging and got high blood pressure whenever she played _Temple Run_ , so how could I possibly think that I was capable of running in _real life._

Yeah, I was really out of shape.

_I didn't fucking sign up for this!_

I struggled to catch my breath while keeping Zephyr in my sight at all times, knowing that with the way he was running, I would lose him if I spared even a moment to look back at our pursuers; however, in spite of the deafening sound of the wind blowing past me, I could still hear the beating of their boots hitting the pavement along with the clapping of my own ballet flats. Ballet flats were really bad for running, and I just realized this now because I didn't exactly run anywhere unless it was to get my laptop to a charger, and I was usually barefoot for that.

Then I remembered how clumsy I was.

_Shit. Don't fall over. Don't fall over. Don't fall over._

I panted heavily, trying to push past the civilians without actually shoving them out of the way because I wasn't an inconsiderate little shit, unlike _some_ people (meaning every Assassin's Creed protagonist _ever_ ). "Sorry!" I squeaked, gently pushing past an elderly woman in my way and letting out a high pitched "Excuse me!" as I barged through a lovey-dovey couple. Oh, I hoped I didn't ruin their date... Well, at least they'd have a funny story to tell people, right?

_Where the fuck was Zephyr?_

I approached an alleyway, slowing my sprint down enough to inspect the small area. Had he gone in there, or had he just continued straight down the sidewalk? How would I know where to go? This was exactly what Zephyr had warned me of...

I turned my head around, looking for the pursuers cautiously, spotting two hooded figures pushing through the crowd who stuck out like sore thumbs. _Just perfect!_ I had to ditch Zephyr, go on by myself, and just hope that we would be reunited later when it was safer.

Thinking fast, I dashed into the alley beside me, praying that it wasn't a dead end.

Of course, by now, y'all should know a thing or two about my luck.

In case you didn't figure it out yet, I'll just let you know that it was a dead end.

I ran over to the wired gate at the other side, attempting to climb it like some faux action hero, only to have my feet slip out of the holes, causing me to stumble down to the ground. I couldn't even breathe as I turned around to face the hooded people.

_Man, I really, really needed to work out._

I struggled to catch my breath, managing only to cough a couple of times and wheeze a few more times, while my throat remained too dry for me to formulate any sort of coherent speech. And where the _fuck_ was Zephyr?

As the two unknown people made their way over to me, I spotted a familiar face popping up behind them, with shaggy black hair and a scruffy chin. _Zephyr._ Unfortunately for him, I wasn't the only one to notice his presence, as my noticeable staring had alerted the bad guys and they had both turned around slightly to acknowledge him.

"After him!" one of the figures spoke, its voice unmistakably female. Her accomplice cast one glance at Zephyr, who simply shrugged and smiled slyly before dashing away from the alleyway and leaving me to fend for myself.

_That fucking asshole._

While the female's partner sprinted off to chase down the traitor, she walked towards me slowly, pulling back her hood as she did so, revealing herself to be a very young woman, looking to be in her mid-twenties at most, with her dark hair cut boyishly and her dark eyes ablaze. She activated a duel disk on her arm, which I had just noticed.

So, she wanted to duel me? Well, if I had learned anything these past few days, it was that I wasn't too shabby when it came to dueling, so maybe I had a chance against this woman. Then again, this woman didn't look like she was interested in my rarest card or my locator card; she looked like she was out to do some real harm.

"Wh-Who are you?" I managed to forcefully drag the words out of my throat, which was still parched, and I was sure that its state wouldn't improve much as long as I was still out of breath and hyperventilating. I would probably have to wait until my breathing was back to normal for my throat to feel any less scratchy.

"You can call me Viola," she replied, "and I'm going to be the one to send you where you really belong!" Before I could ask her where exactly it was that I really belonged, she spat out the answer. "Your grave!" Well, that certainly didn't sound very pleasant. "Now hurry up and activate your duel disk, abomination!"

_Abomination?_ What was it with my opponents and giving me unpleasant nicknames?

"You asked for it!" I called out raspily, putting my deck into my duel disk and watching as the simulators ejected from the sides. "I'm gonna kick your ass!" I threatened, adding a little wheeze to the end of the sentence... for flair, y'know. Nothing more kickass than swear words and old person noises; am I right?

The woman, Viola, smirked and drew her first cards. "Then I'll start things off if you don't mind."

**Viola: 4000**

**Lorna: 4000**

_Here we go again..._

"First of all, let's make things more interesting!" Viola snapped with her free hand and I could feel the atmosphere around us become chilling and bleak, almost as though she had pulled us out of this beautiful summer day and into the middle of a pitch black winter night, from the cold breeze that disturbed my bangs to the steadily darkening sky above us.

"What are you doing?" I asked her, my voice shaky, and that wasn't the only part of me that was shaking; my arms were shivering slightly at the sudden change in weather. I suddenly felt a pressure on top of my feet and tilted my head down to inspect the culprit, only to let out a startled shriek when I noticed the murky ground below my feet and the unrecognizable muck that had made its way onto my new shoes. It was dark red and looked like raw meat, but it stung the exposed part of my feet like acid at the touch.

"It's a shadow game, _abomination,_ " she informed me with a smile, looking as though she was simply telling me what was on TV, and she took my shocked silence as an opportunity to continue speaking. "The rules are simple. I'm sure you've noticed these filthy little things growing on top of our feet. They're living flesh -the living flesh of vengeful spirits who have risen from the underworld looking for a bite to eat." She gestured to her own feet and I saw that she also had a fleshy mound covering her own feet... just like me. However, she was wearing boots, so it wasn't touching her bare flesh.

_I think I'm going to vomit._

"Luckily, they've stumbled upon our game..."

"Get to the point!" I called out weakly, clutching at my stomach and trying my hardest not to look dizzy. I was more than a little squeamish and I had always become lightheaded after seeing gore in horror movies, so it was only natural that, upon seeing what _seemed_ to be gore in real life, I was all but ready to empty out the contents of my stomach at the thought of having that on my feet throughout the whole duel.

"The _point_ is that these spirits will continue to eat at our flesh throughout this duel. Every time either of us loses life points, the spirits will rise up our bodies, consuming even more of our flesh. When either of our life points reaches zero..." I didn't even need her to continue that statement because I had a fairly good prediction. "The loser's body will be completely consumed." The way she said it sounded like that horrid fact actually amused her. "To put it simply: If you lose, you die."

"You're sick!" I cried out, trying and failing to tug my legs away from the _spirits_ that clung to me so tightly.

She simply let out an airy laugh and drew a card, casting a bemused glance over her hand, but it didn't take her long to decide exactly what she wanted to start off with. "I'm going to activate _the Sanctuary in the Sky_!" she announced, setting the card on her duel disk as the field clouded up and a miniature temple rose into the air on her side of the field. "I'm assuming you know what this does, but in case you're the forgetful kind, this protects my life points if you attack any of my fairy monsters -"

"Yeah! Yeah! I have that card," I hollered back at her in irritation. "I know exactly what it does."

"Then you'll probably know exactly what this card does, too," Viola said, activating another spell card - _Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen_. And she was right. I knew exactly what that card did. It allowed her to summon any fairy from her hand as long as she had no monsters on her side of the field, and since this was just the first turn, it was a given that she _didn't_ have any monsters on her side of the field.

_But those are my cards..._

"I'll special summon my _Agent of Judgment – Saturn_ using the effect of _Valhalla_!"

_That's not your_ Agent of Judgment. _That's mine!_

"And since I haven't normal summoned this turn yet, I'll summon my _Shining Abyss_ as well."

_That's not your_ Shining Abyss _. That's mine, too..._

"Then I'll end my turn! Do your worst, abomination!" she challenged.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Viola had just engaged us in a shadow game, and what was worse was that all of her cards were strangely familiar, like I had seen them somewhere before -namely, _my own deck_!


	14. Life and Death

"Your turn, abomination," the woman said, smirking at me and waving around the two cards in her hand. _Welp, let's get this started..._

I drew my first hand, trying not to think about how great her first hand was. She was using my deck, but the hand she got was one I would never in a million years get. Why didn't I ever get that lucky on my first draw? So far, she had drawn _Sanctuary in the Sky_ and _Valhalla Hall of the Fallen_ in one turn, along with one of my strongest monsters, _The Agent of Judgment – Saturn, and_ I didn't even want to think about what else may have been in her hand.

I bit my lip when I looked over my first cards. I didn't have any strong monsters in my hand to defend me, but I had some pretty good magic and trap cards. I could fend off her monsters until I got something better. My eyes slipped down to look at the pulsating flesh that lay dormant on my feet, becoming conscious of the burning sensation that it was leaving on my skin. _Man, that's definitely going to leave a mark... and if I'm not careful, it'll do much more than that._ My heart rate sped up at the thought, and I could have sworn I saw the _thing_ shiver in response.

Putting my game face on, I set one trap card down and activated the _Ookazi_ I was holding. It wasn't a bad start; at least I wasn't the first one to lose life points. I activated the card, slamming it violently on my duel disk. "There's a hell of a lot more where _that_ came from you sick bitch!" I hollered at her, shaking my fist at her and taking a step forward, only to feel a searing pain shoot through the nerves of my left leg. I gasped and let out a shriek, shutting my eyes tightly. Was my leg stuck? My first attempt at moving it ended with me nearly dislocating it, so it went without saying that I wasn't too keen on trying that again.

I felt my gut knot itself countless times as I watched the demons at Viola's feet rise up her leg slowly, stopping just after her knees. My eyes then moved over to her face, observing her expression closely, but there was no change -still that same all-knowing smirk, which grew in size at the sound of my own pained yelp. Didn't she feel anything? How was she still standing?

I sucked in a deep breath, feeling it hitch on the way in, and I tried as hard as I could to push the pain of my ankles into the back of my mind. They made it look so easy in the books and the movies, pushing away the pain, being strong and brave... having courage. Maybe it wasn't as hard as I thought...

"Did I forget to mention that you can't move any part of your body that has been touched by the demonic spirits?" my opponent replied in a smug tone, as though I were the only one in danger, as though she didn't have half of her legs consumed. What kind of woman was this? "Their venom contains a paralyzing agent that works on the immediate area that the spirits are feeding on."

"Won't you fall over then?" I asked her meekly, looking down at my feet. _Paralyzing agent? My feet are... paralyzed?_

"Well, I've taken care of that as well," she replied, setting a hand on her hip delicately. "You won't be able to move your legs, but you can still stand up if you have the energy to." _How?_ How could she talk about this so casually? This was literally a life or death situation. She could _really_ die.

I could die...

Then it hit me.

She knew she was going to win from the very beginning. She was using my deck, after all, so she must have known its ins and outs, its weaknesses, its strengths. She had designed her whole strategy in order to defeat me in this duel. Why did this woman want me dead so badly? What was in it for her? Who was she working for?

"Make your move before I start to get impatient!"

Her voice brought my train of thought to an abrupt halt, making me look up at her rather than the less than aesthetic sight below me. I quickly realized that I hadn't finished my turn yet, and I could blame that on my extremely short attention span, but wouldn't it be so much easier to blame it on the gory appendages that clung to my feet like leeches? Whoever was to blame, I still had to finish my move.

I felt like crying, though. I really did.

"I – I summon the _Agent of Creation – Venus_!" I announced, my voice missing its usual zest – hard to be zesty when you're facing imminent death, though. "In defense mode!" I added really quickly before setting the card down on my duel disk.

A mere couple of paces in front of me, _Venus_ materialized, looking more like an angel than a monster, surrounded by her billowing, golden cascade of hair and suspended in the air by a pair of majestic ivory wings that beat steadily, causing a light breeze to blow over me. It was one of the few times that I didn't mind the simulators. The wind was light and cooled my face, which was dripping gallons of sweat. It didn't do anything to ease my nausea, but it felt good, and I couldn't help but crack a smile while I watched _Venus_ cocoon herself with her wings.

I cast an idle glance at Viola's _Agent of Judgment –_ _Saturn_ and frowned slightly, for a mere hour ago, he was protecting _my_ life points, not hers. For a minute, I almost thought he was looking back at me solemnly, but when I looked closely, his dark lavender eyes were fixed on _Venus_.

It occurred to me then that these monsters weren't holograms in this duel. No, this was a shadow game, which meant that _Venus, Saturn, Shining Abyss..._ they were all real – and I had just put two of my _Agent_ monsters up against each other. Did that make me a horrible person? I decided not to think about it too much because if I lost this duel, I would be a horrible dead person and I would much rather have been a horrible living person.

Now, my _Agent of Creation_ had zero defense points, which meant that she could be killed by virtually any monster in her state, but I had a plan for that – and I just hoped that it would protect me, at least until I got some stronger monsters to defend me. I activated _Mist Body_ and equipped _Venus_ with it. This magic card protected my monster from other monsters' attacks, which meant that it couldn't be destroyed in battle, and as long as she was in defense mode, I wouldn't lose any life points either. I mean, sure, with _Sanctuary in the Sky_ on the field, neither of us would lose life points when a battle involved one of our fairies, but as far as Viola was concerned, she could easily dispose of that card and attack. I just couldn't risk it.

" _Mist Body_?" Viola asked, raising one of her eyebrows and cocking her head to the side as the air around my _Venus_ became thick and foggy.

"You know what it does!" I snapped, not really in the mood to talk to her. It was bad enough that this mist was humid and irritating, however, if it could protect my monster, then it was worth the discomfort.

A shrill laugh sounded in the alleyway and when it was over, Viola was grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "That I do! Anything else you wanna do before I begin my turn?"

I scanned my hand quickly, trying to figure out whether any of the cards in my hand would be useful at the moment, but there was nothing I could use so, after biting my lip tightly, I replied, "Your move."

She swiped a card from the top of her deck quickly and when her eyes lit up, I could have sworn my heart stopped beating. I put a hand to my chest and clutched the material of my shirt tightly, forcing myself to remain calm or I wouldn't have the energy to stay on my feet anymore, because if I fell over, I wouldn't be able to pick myself back up – not with two paralyzed feet. I tried breathing in deeply, chanting to myself.

_She can't destroy_ Venus. _She can't destroy_ Venus. _She can't._

"Time to make things exciting!" Viola cried out, raising the card she had just drawn in the air. "I'm going to sacrifice my _Shining Abyss -_ " - _No, not a tribute summon. She can't attack me anyway. She can't attack me anyway._ \- " - and I'm going to summon an old friend of yours!" I held my breath, trying not to shiver and shake in my spot. "Say hello to _Airknight Parshath_!"

Usually, the sight of my own monster standing in front of me made me giddy – I mean, who _doesn't_ like to stare at their own monsters in awe? - but as _Airknight Parshath_ positioned himself beside _Saturn_ , I felt every hair on my body stand on end and the blood in my veins froze. You see, in case you weren't paying attention in my last duel, that particular monster had a very... useful effect. It could deal piercing life point damage when it attacked anything in defense mode, and my _Venus_ was in defense mode.

"Now, I can't destroy your monster because of _Mist Body_ , so _Saturn_ will have to sit back in this round," the woman said with a small sigh, but her smile was wide when she spoke again. "But my _Parshath_ can still deal some damage." My Parshath. _He's_ my Parshath. The word 'damage' sent a trickle of acid down my throat. " _Airknight Parshath_! Attack _the Agent of Creation – Venus_!"

I didn't know why, but as her monster galloped towards me, I glanced over at _Saturn_ , begging him with my eyes to protect _Venus._ They were supposed to be allies. Why wasn't _Saturn_ doing anything?

_Please, do something._

If my heart weren't caught in my throat, I would have let out a derisive little chuckle at the thought. _Saturn_ wasn't about to do anything. He wasn't my monster in this duel; he was Viola's monster, and he didn't give a rat's hairy ass what happened to me.

_Airknight Parshath's_ blade thrust into my _Venus_ , and as I expected, she wasn't destroyed; her whole body shifted out of the way, blowing to the side like the wind, shrugging away his attack, but his advance didn't stop there. He continued to dash towards me, and no pitiful glances at either _Saturn_ or my own monster _, Venus_ , could halt his approach, though I saw _Venus_ standing timidly to the side, watching me, her head bowed slightly and her hands folded over her heart. It was all she could do for me.

I dug my nails even deeper into the fabric of my shirt and squeezed my eyelids shut, bracing myself for impact, but there was no way I could have been fully prepared for the sharp, throbbing ache, the feeling of having the wind knocked out of me, the sting of my feet as they struggled to keep me from being thrown back against the wall behind me. My eyes began to protest as my lids pushed roughly against them, and I began to tear up.

I couldn't do this. I couldn't. How in the world was I expected to be ready for this – ever?

**Viola: 3200**

**Lorna: 2100**

_No. No. No. This means..._

The pain from _Airknight Parshath's_ attack was beginning to dull; it was no longer the raw torture it had been just moments earlier, but I knew another pain was coming. I didn't want to open my eyes yet. I didn't want to watch it happen. It was enough that I could feel it all over me – the wet, slimy feeling... It was crawling up my legs, burning through my leggings to break through to my sensitive skin, expanding itself and making me feel incredibly stiff. My legs ached and the burning sensation only increased the longer they lasted. They stopped their approach when they reached my waist, but the pain didn't stop with them.

Before I knew it, the tears were dripping down my face almost as steadily as the sweat and I couldn't tell which salty droplet was which when they slid past my lips and onto my tongue. My legs hurt so much. I just wanted it all to stop.

"If you surrender now, you won't have to go through all of this." The voice penetrated the fog of my mind and echoed dully against my consciousness. "I promise you, your death will be quick and painless. Just give in." _Give in._ No, I couldn't. If I gave in, I would die. I couldn't die. I had a lot to live for: my parents, my friends back home, my friends in this dimension, Joey, Yugi, Téa, Tristan, Mrs Muto, Grandpa Muto... But the force that dutifully hung on to the bottom of my heart begged me to surrender.

"No!" I cried out, forcing my eyelids open and staring right at my opponent. My voice was weak and my resolve even weaker, but at least I had a voice and resolve. "N-Now end your turn!"

"Are you sure?" Viola asked, her eyes clouding over briefly. _Venus_ also had an unmistakable look of uncertainty in her eyes. She had slipped back into her spot right in front of me, giving the impression of a duteous protector when in reality, I was the one who had taken the blow on her behalf, losing nearly half of my life points in the process, as well as half of my body. "Very well, then!" she cried out, snatching a card out of her hand. "I'll set one face down card and end my turn."

My arms felt heavy as I drew a card from my deck. _Hoshiningen_ (500/700). My lip quivered as my thumb nail dug into the plastic surface of the card. I was about to die and the best my deck could cough up was fucking _Hoshiningen_? In normal circumstances, this monster may have saved my life with its special ability, which gave each of my light monsters 500 attack points, but Viola's monsters were also light monsters, making its ability obsolete. I could also summon _Marie the Fallen One_ (1700/1200), a much stronger monster than _Hoshiningen_ , but being a 5 star monster, it couldn't be summoned without a sacrifice, and it wasn't worth sacrificing my only line of defense, _Venus._

My opponent's mocking tone slithered over to me in the form of an ironic laugh. "Looks like luck isn't on your side, abomination."

_It never has been. And stop calling me that._

"I'd like to hurry this up, so if you could keep your sad little inner monologues to a minimum..."

My eye twitched uncontrollably as my hand moved mechanically over to my duel disk, the _Hoshiningen_ card gripped tightly between my fingers. "I'm going to summon _Hoshiningen_ in attack mode." Each monster on the field gained 500 attack points, bringing Viola's _Saturn_ up to a whopping 2900 attack points. "Then I'm going to put _the Agent of Creation – Venus_ in attack mode as well." At least my life points would be safe in case Viola had _Airknight Parshath_ attack again since his special ability only affected me as long as my monsters were in defense.

_Here's me hoping that she hangs on to her_ Sanctuary in the Sky _just a bit longer._

A star-shaped monster about the size of my torso came into existence in front of me, hovering nonchalantly with two rainbow ribbons waving about behind him like a mockery of _Venus's_ gorgeous feathery appendages, which retracted and left her standing upright in front of me. Where _Venus_ had a determined spark in her eyes, _Hoshiningen's_ expression was decidedly sarcastic, like he wasn't taking my life or this duel seriously.

I glared at the three cards in my hand, the same three cards that had been sitting there uselessly from my very first turn. I was going to lose this duel, and I was going to die.

"I end my turn," I murmured passively, trying to look anywhere but Viola's vicious sneer, but when the alternative was the mass of demonic spirits climbing their way up my body, I had no choice but to close my eyes and listen instead.

"With just that?" she asked, seeming like she had actually expected more of me, but what more could I do? I couldn't even keep a straight face like her when I lost life points. There was no way I could win against her, but if I was going to die, at least I would fight until the end, because at least I was capable of doing that much if nothing else.

"Yes," I replied with a broken voice. If you looked closely, you could see the individual pieces of my spirit breaking and crumbling away with each beat of _Venus's_ wings.

"Well, well, you look positively pathetic right now," Viola cooed then wagged her tongue at me teasingly. She drew a card and set it on her duel disk; it was _Bio-Mage_ (1150/1000; now 1650/1000), a humanoid monster in a black headdress and armor, and also the first weak card she had summoned throughout this duel. But why? Was she stocking up on monsters to annihilate me with? "I'll also set two face down cards and end my turn."

Man, her field was packed. She had almost all of her spell and trap card slots filled up, as well as her field spell card slot. She also had three monsters on her side of the field, and what did I have? Two powerless monsters between her and my life points like sitting ducks before a slaughter.

With shaking fingers, I reached for my deck and swiped quickly, holding my card at an arms-length away from myself. _Please, please, please! Let this be a good one!_ In one fluid movement, I brought the card before my eyes and read it. _Mirror Force_! This was just the break I needed! Not only did it destroy every monster on my opponent's side of the field, but she would also have to pay quite a lot of life points afterward. I set the card down on my side of the field, hoping for the first time during this duel that she would attack me. Just thinking about it made me giddy, because not only did the total attack points of her monsters add up to well over 4000 points, but the effect of _Hoshiningen_ increased her monsters' attack points, making the damage even more devastating to her. There was a possibility that I could win in this next turn!

However, that would also mean that I would be killing Viola... Sure, she was a bitch and all, but was I really prepared to be the cause of someone's death? Looking into her dark brown eyes, I saw malice, mischief and sadism, but I also saw life, and I didn't quite know how I would feel if I saw them drained and dull... and dead. The problem was that if I let her live, I would die, and I absolutely had to stay alive.

Why couldn't the penalty of this shadow game just be a nice little trip to the shadow realm? At least people had actually come out of that place...

The older woman shook her head and sighed. "Well, let's get this over with, shall we?" She drew a card and grinned. Reaching for a different card in her hand, she placed it on her duel disk. "First, I'm going to activate this nifty little magic card called _Raigeki_."

_That card isn't in my deck..._

"I'm sure you've heard of it before, but in case you haven't, what it does is destroy every monster on your side of the field! And I take it _Mist Body_ can't protect your _Venus_ from spell cards, can it?"

_No, it can't._

With a loud crack, the whole alley was illuminated and I had to cover my eyes when the two bolts of lightning struck both my _Hoshiningen_ and my _Venus_ down. I couldn't even watch their demise until the blinding light began to fade and it was all over. I didn't even realize I had been holding my breath until I opened my mouth and gulped in gallons of disgusting air, tasting the scorched earth and the dusty atmosphere, sapped dry of all the moisture now that _Mist Body_ was no longer on the field. And the worst part of all was the fact that I no longer had anything standing in the way between her monsters and my life points.

I still had _Mirror Force_ , though. I would be fine. Oh, god I hoped I would be fine.

Viola didn't even give my trap card a second glance when she announced her attack. "Your defeat is now imminent, abomination! Prepare to taste the flames of hell!" she bellowed, extending her arm towards me as though trying to reach something just out of her grasp. "Now, my beasts! Attack her life points directly!"

"Not so fast!" I cried out, hurriedly revealing my trap card. "I activate _Mirror Force_! Now all your monsters are destroyed! And you lose the rest of your life points!" A transparent wall made of energy rose around my body, shielding me from the three monsters that were heading towards me and blasting them away towards Viola.

_I won. I actually won!_

"I don't think so! Activate, _Emergency Provisions_!"

_Dammit..._ But how many spells could she possibly get rid of? I mean, I calculated it in my head, and the total damage caused by my trap card was 5450 points, which would be hard to cushion with her spell card. I swallowed the large lump in my throat and waited for her to continue speaking.

"I'll send _five_ of my spell cards to the graveyard in order to gain 5000 extra life points!" she said, sending her _Sanctuary in the Sky_ , her _Valhalla Hall of the Fallen_ , and her three face down cards to her graveyard slot, leaving her field bare. What was she thinking leaving herself completely open like this? I could easily attack her life points directly. Still, she managed to evade 5000 points of damage... This woman was definitely way out of my league.

**Viola: 2750**

**Lorna: 2100**

I opened my mouth to ask her if her turn was done, but she beat me to the punch with "And that's not all. Now that I have four monsters in my graveyard, I can bring out my ultimate beast!"

' _Ultimate beast'?_ My strongest monster was _Neo-Parshath the Sky Paladin._ What was hers?

"Come out, _Archlord Kristya_!" Viola screamed, trying to raise her voice over the howling of the wind and the beating of wings as her monster descended from the sky. "Are you scared yet, abomination?"

I didn't have _that_ card either, so yes, I was terrified.


	15. Lumen I

She holds onto his hand as hard as she can. Where did all these people come from? Why are they chasing after her? Their rough combat boots pound the soft concrete beneath them, hard enough to shatter bones, making her glad that she isn't under those boots herself.

"C'mon, Serenity!" he calls back, and she can't even see his face, she can only see the lights dimming as they go deeper into what she can only assume is an alleyway. Having been bedridden for weeks, she can't even keep her breath steady, trying to maintain her stride without stumbling to the ground in a heap. She is so tired that if she were to drop to her knees, she wouldn't have the strength to pull herself back up again. "Keep up!" he bellows again, his voice bouncing off the walls and blasting into her ears at a volume decibels higher than it originally was. _Keep up?_ If only she could...

"I'm... " She can't even finish her sentence; the single syllable leaves her breathless and frantically sucking the oxygen from the wind as it passes her face. _Trying..._ she thinks bitterly, a futile attempt to finish her sentence.

Her legs are on fire, punishing her brutally for the exertion. It's a miracle she's still on her feet, but she can't give up as long as she has Tristan with her. He's risking his life to keep her safe and bring her to her big brother, and that thought alone is pushing her forward, giving her strength she didn't know she had. Beneath her eyelids, she can see her big brother giving her his toothy grin and leaning over to give her a bear hug, and she misses him so much it hurts.

_Joey... Wherever you are... I hope you're okay._

She can feel herself being tugged around a corner and sticks her hand out to feel for the wall, attempting to swerve around it. Her hand meets the firm bricks and she skillfully pushes against them to keep herself on track. "Careful!" Tristan warns her, pulling her closer. "We're almost there just..." His voice trails off and she can feel the cold hand of despair on her chest, sending chills up and down her arms.

"T-Tristan!" she whimpers; it's all she can bring herself to say. She doesn't know what's going on, but Tristan has stopped running and has pressed her small body against his own. The rush and the earth-shattering footsteps are gone and all she can hear is her heartbeat echoing in her ears. The shadow she can see through her blindfold tells her that the threat is not gone.

Gravity pulls even harder against her weak legs and her hands grab the fabric of Tristan's shirt feebly, only to have it slip out of her hands, which feel like wood and won't properly function in spite of her constant efforts to reanimate them. She can only vaguely feel her friend's firm arms against her, the only thing keeping her from collapsing right there and then.

"Are you okay?" His voice sways and floats right past her ears; the only parts of his speech she can make out are the residue words that happen to hit their mark. Her head hurts and her mouth won't even open to spit out words of reassurance, something to tell the boy next to her that she isn't going to die on him. All she can do is try to open her eyes, to keep herself conscious, lest she become a burden on Tristan's broad shoulders, but she can't even do that...

* * *

She comes around in darkness and silence deafening enough to question whether it had been her ears and not her eyes that had been covered. Her whole body feels light, as though her weight has fled into the atmosphere and left her empty shell of a body at the mercy of the wind. Her hands can feel some form of solid ground beneath her and push against it so that she can rise into awareness, her blindfolded eyes trying as hard as they can to detect Tristan's presence. It's too quiet. She doesn't like it.

_Lumen. I light your path, and gift you with Sight._

The girl feels her hand move on its own accord and touch a cold, smooth surface. Her lips won't move; her body is frozen, awaiting her upcoming fate like a criminal on death row. She knows she's just heard a voice, but it is gone so quickly, leaving behind it the maddening stillness, that she can almost dismiss it as her mind playing tricks on a poor, naive little girl.

Serenity feels a scream tear through her tightly-sealed lips, seeming more like a solid mass as it squeezes out of her throat and forces its way out. Her vocal chords are on fire and her hands plaster themselves onto her sensitive skin, trying to squeeze the flames out, but they only succeed in enraging it further, and the agonizing red makes its way to her eyes and temples. She can't stop screaming and it's breaking her.

_Why...Why is this happening?_

Every attempt to control her breathing proves futile. Her eyes are watering and she shuts them as tightly as she can, but that doesn't stop a profound ray of light from taking a stubborn stand at the very horizon of her visual plane. It seems so foreign to her, so wrong, that a light should be enforcing itself in her world of darkness, and that this light is a blinding white beam in the literal sense rather than her older brother and metaphorical light of her life.

The pain becomes a part of her existence, like it has been there since she had come into existence, like there has never been a day that she has had to live without it, as she struggles to get to her feet on numb legs. And she can feel his presence, right next to her, malevolent and beautiful in equal measure. She knows he's there because she has been clinging to his arm tightly enough to cut off its circulation.

The light continues to expand against her will, revealing to the young girl her surroundings, a blend of a white bright enough to render her ocular surgery null and void and a black deep enough that, were she to slip into the matter forming the ground upon which she stood, she would descend endlessly into the abyss. She proceeds to plant her feet firmly on the ground for measure, testing its viscosity and only moving forward when she is certain that it won't suck her in.

He is tall, dark and mysterious, the man that stands beside her, holding her close and watching her thoughtfully from behind his porcelain mask. She has no reason to believe that he's human, with his talon like fingers and the long, dark nails protruding off of the end; and she can see him -actually _see_ him. It's his warmth and his gait that is unmistakably human and she doesn't know whether to be relieved or terrified. Her operation worked, but she can still feel the cloth over her eyes, and eyelids, covering her eyes completely.

She only just remembers that her vocal chords are still in perfect shape, sitting unused in her throat before she utters her first words to the masked man. "Where am I?"

She almost doesn't expect him to speak; she cannot see his his mouth, his lips, so it must not exist. She concentrates on the still lips, a simple curved line carved carefully onto his face, set into an all-knowing smile, and she glances at the crescent moon eyes and she can almost see two vibrant irises just out of her reach in the blackness.

"This is the Inbetween."

His voice drifts through the void between the two and waltzes gracefully into her ears. She doesn't know what it is about him that terrifies and intrigues her to the point where she finds herself perfectly capable of walking on her own, but incapable of letting go of his arm, totally and irrevocably dependent on him.

_The Inbetween?_ Her mind tries to figure out what that could possibly mean while his free arm flourishes and gestures to the space in front of them, a spacious green meadow, dotted with violets and flower petals. She's led deeper into the meadow, her legs moving of their own accord towards unforeseeable center, and she finds her gaze fixated on the fluid movement of his baggy, striped pant legs as an unnatural wind sweeps over them.

"Am I alive?"

She can almost see the corners of his lips tug up in a smile, but that can't be, can it?

"You're very much alive, Serenity Wheeler," he replies, walking forward with the young girl in tow.

Just a bit deeper into the blossoming meadow and she can see the outline of something large, something out of place, something that shakes her to her core. The arm that pushes her forward suddenly feels suffocating and the young girl begins to tilt her body in the opposite direction, inadvertently pushing herself into her masked companion. "W-where are you taking me?" she asks him, with a relentless jitter in her voice and a breathlessness that both surprises and silences her. She doesn't know what she will find at her destination, but she knows that there is a strong primal desire inside of her to keep a healthy distance from whatever it is, and while she can barely make out the strange figure at the center of the meadow, she already knows she's much too close for comfort.

"Do you know why you're here?" he asks both gently and forcefully, causing Serenity to desperately rack her brains for a tiny glimpse of a memory, a small fragment of truth pushed back in the deep recesses of her mind to a place she could only just grasp, but nothing is there. There is not even a faded image in her mind's eye to suggest _how_ she had gotten here, let alone _why._ So why is she here?

A small tug at her sleeve brings her back to reality and beckons her to face the faceless man beside her. His ever grinning visage, his leer that suggests that he knows the exact answer to his own question, stares back at her, almost seeming sympathetic as well as mocking and in her state, the young girl can hardly tell the difference -of course, the mask doesn't exactly help.

"Don't be afraid, Serenity Wheeler." His arm glides around and points into the field, directly at the very thing she didn't want to see. "You are gifted with the Sight. Look ahead and believe that you can face anything that crosses your path."

_You must face this, Serenity._

The girl shakes her head but obeys the man nonetheless, turning her head around reluctantly, and somehow, she's even closer than before, and it's clearer than before. She can see it now, the strange being; it's something that is almost a warrior, and not quite human. A creature, humanesque in form, covered from head to toe in what seemed to be white gold armor and hovering a foot over the ground with the support of two rhythmically flapping wings, made almost entirely of what Serenity can only call "solidified light".

A trickle of agitation slides down the porcelain walls of her heart, making her china doll shoulders shiver and sway in the light spring breeze, and she can't help being repelled by this creature, like two identical poles, desperate to sunder, but part of her also knows that she can't leave, not by force but by obligation. She doesn't know why, but a deep stirring in the pits of her conscience won't allow her to leave.

The young girl reaches behind her back and rests her hand on something smooth and cold resting in a leather bag slung over her shoulder. Pulling the object in front of her, she sees that it's an intricately crafted bow, likely made of silver, adorned with small wings carved into the nocks and a bowstring that looked to be made of angels' hair and pixie dust. She notes that it's slender and delicate and light in her hands as she extends her arms in front of her to get the feel of it.

Serenity now looks at her foe from behind the bow's handle and she can sense the power surging through her veins and the confidence breaking through the inky black enamel that had formed over her mind. She could now think with clarity, illuminated by her sense of strength, and without hesitation, she took a slow stride towards the white warrior.

"I think I'm ready now," she tells the man still standing behind her. "I can do this. But first…can you tell me your name?"

From behind her, a faceless voice replies to her question. "You may call me Peten."

She sucks in a deep breath and says, "Thank you, Peten." Her head turns back slowly to gaze upon him one last time, but just like the voice in her head and the flowers on the ground, he has faded into the atmosphere. The only living beings left in the clearing are Serenity and the white warrior.

Serenity reaches for an arrow from the quiver strapped to her back, and aligns it, watching the warrior cautiously as she draws the arrow back.

It is so silent in that moment, that one could almost forget his own existence, but that silence is cut short by the rumbling of the earth shifting and the wind howling around them. Mountains grew like trees out of the dead grass beneath them, bringing with them a soul shattering frigidness. The warrior's arms, which were crossed over its chest at first, were now held out at its sides, ready for war. Its head was thrashing wildly and it began to rise into the air.

The young girl closed her eyes and willed herself into the air as well. Once her toes were no longer touching the ground, she reopened her eyes and watched the ground beneath her shatter, but before she can get too distracted, she adjusts her gaze so that it meets the warrior's round glimmering helmet, which was surrounded by the colorful lights as reflected by the gems lining the tinted glass headpiece, the only indication that this being wasn't entirely a monster.

And then it begins.

The two opponents are hovering in the icy valley between two mountains when the white warrior charges head first towards Serenity, reaching out with a clawed hand that looked like it could break a builidng in two, let alone what it could do to the girl's head. She tightens her grip on the bow in fear and fires her arrow, but the warrior swerves skillfully to the side, successfully avoiding the shot, and continues its attack.

The girl's hair waves about in the wind, settling over her eyes, and panic sets into her heart when she loses sight of the warrior. Blindly, she pushes against the mountain behind her with her feet and leaps to the right while drawing another arrow. As she moves, her hair flies out of her eyes and she can see clearly enough to take another shot. She doesn't waste any time waiting to see if her shot is a hit or a miss and jumped up higher, perching herself on a cliff several feet above her opponent.

She takes this chance to catch her breath and scope the area. The ravine isn't as small as she had imagined it to be, which only makes it easier for her.

Looking down, she's taken aback by how empty the valley looks with her opponent nowhere in sight. Hesitantly, she looks above and around her, trying to discern whether or not the warrior would try to surprise her by attacking from above, but she's not prepared for the ground beneath her to shake and the cliff to break off and descend into the dark valley. She instinctively flings herself off of the falling debris and back into the air, staring down at the culprit behind the cliff breaking and drawing another arrow.

She begins to wonder how any of this is instinctive to her. How is she flying and shooting arrows? How are her reflexes so quick that she can easily dodge her enemy? Why is she able to do any of this at all? Has she always been able to do this or is something controlling her? No. Thus far, every decision she has made was her own -of that she is certain -but the abilities she now has are definitely not hers. Is that what _Peten_ meant when he told her she had been gifted with the Sight? Is the Sight letting her do all of this? She can't be sure, but wherever these abilities came from, they were defending her from this unknown being, and that's all she has time to think about.

This time, she shoots the arrow immediately at the warrior, allowing herself to smirk a bit to herself when she hears the sound of shattering glass. The arrow bounces back, but she has broken through the armor. It's a tiny success with a short-lived happiness afterwards, as Serenity still has to defend herself against an even more enraged warrior.

Through the broken glass, Serenity catches a glimpse of a face, a soft brown blur in the midst of an ocean of white. The warrior never stops long enough for her to get a good look, but she believes that it's human and she doesn't know whether that revelation makes her more or less afraid of this foe. A normal human shouldn't be attacking a stranger -another human -so recklessly. Something is definitely wrong with this foe.

She fires another arrow, still bouncing from one mountain to another nimbly so as to avoid being attacked; the arrow does hit, but not the intended target however. A new foe has risen against her, a small foe, dancing around the white warrior like a servant before a master. It was golden and shaped like a star, yet it still had an unnerving face, smiling wryly even as Serenity's silver arrow impaled the uppermost point on his head. This creature didn't look too threatening, but along with the white warrior, he seems like he'll be a nuisance to her.

The white warrior begins to thrash its head around madly, its flailing around like a fish out of water. A piercing scream cuts through the icy air like lightning, a scream which is undeniably human and fragile. Before Serenity can react, the white warrior is engulfed in black, and from the looks of it, neither the star monster nor the warrior are very happy about that particular turn of events. It's as if a dark black smog is clinging to the its body -no, it's almost as though the smog was growing, manifesting from the holes in the armor and seeping out.

The sight of it gives the young girl a strange sensation, like thousands of maggots have taken refuge in her gut and are wriggling around. It makes her want to vomit and claw at her stomach, but there isn't much she could do for that nauseating feeling with her bow resting in her clenched fists. She knows that she's coating her silver bow with cold sweat and she can't do anything about it. Her feet are planted firmly on the ground, a cliff on a mountain a few feet away from the spectacle, unsure of where to take her next.

The smoke looks entirely malevolent to Serenity, but it's helping her for some reason, so it can't be as bad as she thinks, right?

She can no longer see white -just inky black everywhere on her opponent's body. It's a sort of darkness that makes it seem like the whole warrior is being erased from existence. The star monster is clinging to his master pathetically, trying to shield it from the darkness within, but all of its efforts are in vain. The warrior lets out a muffled croak. It sounds scared and desperate.

_Joooeeyy!_

Her heart flutters in her chest. She recognizes that name -her brother's name, Joey. He seems so far away from her now. She's still in Domino City, though; she can sense it, so he can't be too far away.

A hand rests her shoulder.

"She needs you?"

The young girl is jolted out of her trance and lets out a tiny squeal unbefitting of one who had just displayed her unusual agility and archery skills. Her jaw is still tight and her posture is still rigid when she turns to face the boy who startled her. He looks to be quite young -maybe only a couple of years older than her, with big innocent eyes and messy silver hair. The only thing about him that seems off his the rest of his body. He doesn't seem very human to her, with parts of his body contouring naturally and other parts built like machinery -the whole boy looks like a bundle of spare parts.

"What do you mean?" she asks him, skipping the formalities and getting straight to the core of the matter. "Who is _she_? Who needs me?" There is a flicker of suspicion, a small, far off thought that blinks just within her focus. She knows who she has to save, but she wants to hear him say it, to hear him make it real.

" _Her_ ," he replies. Serenity's eyes follow his hand as it points away from her, just over her shoulder, at the only person in the mountain ridge who is truly in distress.

She scrutinizes the white warrior for a split second before turning her attention back at the boy. "H-how?" Her voice and shoulders shake for the first time since her struggle with the warrior began. This being who was just attacking her… she now has to save it? From what? Smoke?

"You need to pull her out of the darkness," the boy replies, answering both of her questions. "If we wait any longer, her soul will be lost to the Shadow Realm. You were brought here to save her."

The young girl's lip quivers, but she doesn't answer him; she has nothing to say. How does he know all of this? Why didn't _Peten_ tell her any of this? How can she trust him?

The white warrior is in so much pain. Its croaking -no, _her_ croaking is now incessant, riding on the hairs on the back on Serenity's neck. She knows that what's happening is not right at all, so with a new kind of resolve, she tells the boy, "Alright, I'll save her."


	16. Fragments of Truth

_Archlord Kristya_ was a titan of a monster. Its seven feet of pure hulking mass towered over its master, looking me dead in the eye through gleaming red slits. I had temporarily forgotten that these monsters were real, and the realness of that deadly gaze made my knees buckle through the bulk that was pulsating and feeding on my skin. I couldn't fall over though; if I did, it would all be over for me, so I stuck my arms out a bit to keep my balance, the line of vision between my eyes and _Kristya_ 's eyes never breaking.

My heart rate accelerated and I felt so much more vulnerable. Up until this point, I was counting on things being beatable -after all, I knew my deck, and it was _definitely_ beatable. Viola, however, made it pristinely clear that she wasn't here to fuck around with me; she had been making that clear from the moment this duel began. My problem was the fact that when the going got tough, I wasn't tough enough to get going. Things were getting too serious and I was folding into myself; I could hardly keep my head up.

"Hurry up and make your move!" an aggravated voice tore through the air, belonging to my pixie-haired opponent. She gestured with her gloved hand and raised an eyebrow.

"S-sorry," I murmured and drew my card. Why was I apologizing?

"The fuck is your problem!" she snapped and I shot my gaze forward, drifting past _Kristya_ and resting on Viola's face. "I expected more of a challenge from you, but all you do is mope and act like a scared cockroach."

"S-sorry!" I apologized again, feeling my cheeks heat up. I couldn't help it. I was going to lose. There was absolutely no way out of this.

I heard Viola let out a loud groan, which was actually more of a scream than a groan. "See! This is it! You keep fucking apologizing! You're not taking this seriously! You never were. Do you think I'm going to go easy on you because you're pathetic? It just makes me even more excited to see you finally die, you stupid little shit."

I let out a strained string of words that were meant as a retort, but sounded more like a soft plea. "I don't understand! What difference would it make? If I'm going to die, what difference would it make if I died fighting?" Saying it outloud made my heart shudder painfully in my rib-cage. I couldn't stand how accepting I was of my own death, but I was already half dead if the demons quivering in anticipation on my legs were any indication.

The woman looked taken aback by my reply, her eyelids drooping slightly over glimmering eyes, as though she were deep in thought. They returned to me with a ferocity I hadn't seen throughout our whole duel. "You still don't understand, do you?"

"Understand _what_?" I asked, becoming aware of the sweat under my bangs when a droplet obscured my vision for less than a moment.

"Why I'm even after you."

Now that she mentioned it, I had actually been wonder why she even wanted to kill me -y'know, it was kind of the only thing on my mind from the beginning of this wretched duel. "Then tell me."

_Damn, it's so fucking hot outside…_ I grabbed the cuff of my shirt and wiped my face, then I raised the sleeves to my elbows. It didn't help much, but it helped nonetheless.

"You aren't supposed to exist," she began. I was about to interject with a sarcastic comment about how I already knew that, but she looked like she had more to say, so I held my tongue. "You're a part of something bigger than yourself -something dangerous. You were brought here for a very specific purpose, and whether your existence on its own harms this world or not, it is one of several gears in a large device ticking down to doomsday. It is up to me and the rest of the _Guardians_ to take apart that device, piece by piece."

Her explanation left me with more questions than answers and I felt even more confused than I had been at first. She was being so vague, and whether or not it was on purpose, it was making my head hurt to piece together all the puzzle pieces I had been presented with thus far. And as I arranged and rearranged the small pieces to no avail, something clicked in my mind. They weren't coming together because some of the pieces _didn't belong_ , like it had come from an entirely different puzzle.

To start with, I had been told that I was being sent to this world to help Yugi save it, and while Yugi usually wouldn't need help to save the world, it made sense that, if I had somehow ended up in this world, a new and unknown enemy had also come into existence here. However, if this were true, it would totally debunk Viola's words. If I were meant to save the world, and Viola was meant to do the same, then we were on the same side. That being said, her claims of me being part of an evil scheme didn't add up.

Someone was lying to me, and I was betting I knew exactly who it was.

Still, Viola forgot to explain one thing. "But you still haven't answered my question. What difference does it make?"

My opponent parted her lips slightly, as though looking for the right words to say. Her eyes focused on my face, and I wondered what expression she saw. My lips were pursed and my brow felt tense, so I could only imagine that I looked like an indignant toddler standing before the school entrance, only it wasn't a school that I was about to enter. I was staring at a grimmer, much more frightening door. And, _God_ , I didn't want to go inside.

When, finally, Viola spoke, she said exactly what I had been thinking. "It _would_ make my life a lot easier if I just killed you…" Something sinister flashed in her eyes as they seemed to go out of focus for a moment, but it was only one moment, and then she was back to normal. "However…" She hesitated before reaching into her pocket and pulling out something small and holding it to the sun. It was crystallic and reflected rays of sunlight into my eyes, which had been adjusting slowly to the darkness in the alley. She looked like she was looking into the crystal, like the kaleidoscope reflected in the crystal contained the answer to my question.

"What is that?" I couldn't help asking.

Viola's eyes shifted slightly and she was looking at me again. "This is why it makes a difference. This _is_ the difference. It's a long shot, but…" She sighed and clutched the crystal in her closed fist. "Should you win this duel, I'd give you this fragment."

I stared hard at her hand for a moment. This woman, who wanted me dead, was offering me that crystal in the event that I won this duel. The whole ordeal made alarms blare in my mind. This woman was capable of evoking the power of darkness -the power of the shadows -so it was safe to say, any crystal belonging to her was definitely no ordinary thing.

It was as though she could read my mind. She nodded slowly and the fingers enclosing the small fragment uncurled. "This is one of several fragments scattered all around this world. As you've probably figured out by now, the fragments are part of a whole. Only when all of the fragments are gathered and put together can their full power be unleashed."

I brushed my damp bangs to the top of my head, and the sweat allowed them to stay put. "And what is their 'full power'? Why would you want to give me power anyway? I'm dangerous, remember? I'm part of an evil scheme, so that means I'm the last person you should be giving power to."

Viola set to work on answering my questions one by one. She was being strangely cooperative with me, and it unnerved me. "The power these fragments give, once united, is the power of Truth. I'd give you this power in the hope that you'll be able use it to destroy the puppetmaster who brought you here." _Puppetmaster?_

I still didn't trust her, as I tended not to trust people who were trying to kill me (I mean, I don't know if it's just me or…), but I decided nonetheless to go along with her little charade, careful not to fall prey to her manipulation. "Wouldn't that power be much more useful in the hands of someone who knew how to use it and was much stronger than me?"

A wry smile played at her lips and she tossed the fragment into the air, catching it easily and thrusting her arm out to point at me. "You, my dear abomination, are much stronger than I am. You just don't know it yet." … _What is wrong with this woman?_ She was trying so hard to defeat me in this duel -in fact, I was such a bad duelist that she was hardly trying -but at the same time, she was telling me that I was stronger than her? I sighed and fidgeted around unconsciously, only to end up igniting the pain in my lower body that I had been trying to suppress. The slightest movement made me feel like I was being torn in half at the hip by an invisible giant. Even though my legs were almost numb from the paralysis, the pain of the leech-like demons was consistent.

"What do you mean by that?" I grunted, my hands massaging the exposed part of my abdomen slowly.

"You are not truly alive in this dimension," she replied, placing her hand at her hip. At least she still had the privilege of doing so. I didn't know what would happen if I tried to touch the demon flesh at my hips, but I could guess that it would be unnecessarily painful. Before I could ask her to explain her statement, she continued speaking. "Every living creature has a great amount of energy at their core. Theoretically, with this energy, a human can unleash full mental capacity and perform superhuman feats. In living creatures, this energy is muted by several protective layers, making it impossible for them to truly harness that energy." Just as I began to wonder how any of this had anything to do with me, she added, "You, and people like you, exist without these layers. You have been brought into existence as raw energy in this world."

"Then why don't I have superhuman powers?" I questioned, still feeling a bit sore in my pelvic area.

"It's impossible for you to take advantage of the energy you have without hurting yourself, and subconsciously, you know that," she said, each word a new wall in the labyrinth of thoughts she had built in my mind. The idea that I had this power inside me was a bit overwhelming and I wasn't sure whether she was telling the truth, and if she was, what that meant for me as far as my involvement with Yugi and the gang went. "And you may never truly utilize the energy within you, but I know that whatever plan the puppetmaster is preparing for, they need you and the others who were brought here with you, because at some point in your old lives, your protective layers were shattered. "

When I heard her mention the "others" in this world, I perked up. _Zephyr is just like me_. Was he caught by that hooded man? Or did he manage to escape? I hadn't even known the guy for more than an hour, but I could feel a strong sense of companionship with him. We were in the same situation -lightyears away from home and not sure what was going on. At least I had friends -Yugi, Téa, Joey, Tristan… Did Zephyr also make friends here, too, or was he still trying to figure things out by himself? I just hoped he was okay. I didn't know how good of a duelist he was, and being stuck in a Shadow Duel was scary enough when you were someone like Yugi, let alone someone who was a rookie duelist.

I stared down at the ground in thought. I couldn't keep my eyes off of the gory mass that covered my feet, but my eyes always strayed to the ground when I was in thought -an involuntary habit. I had no more questions to ask… No, that was a lie. I had plenty of questions, but I had no idea which ones to ask, so I stayed quiet. Viola looked like she was done speaking as well, and I suppose that meant that it was time for me to finally figure out what to do with my turn. My eyes eased their way to my hand. I hadn't even spared a glance at the card I had just drawn. Who knows? Maybe I had drawn one of those destiny draws that were all the rage these days.

"You have the potential, you know…" My opponent's voice interrupted my little moment of truth and I immediately looked back at her. Her expression was grave and she was still holding the crystal in her hand. "You slipped so easily into the Pharaoh's little group of friends. You've been personally trained by the Pharaoh's modern incarnation. You've been given an advantage over the others."

I bit my lip and held in a sigh. "Can you quit it with the pep talk? I know you want to stay alive just as much as I do." I didn't get a reply from her though, only a mysterious smile and a slender finger to her rosy lips. Looks like that was the last of her strange motivational speech. I mean, the idea that I was so bad at dueling that I needed an actual pep talk from my own opponent to carry on must've spoken volumes about the kind of person I was.

**Viola: 2750**

**Lorna: 2100**

I brought my recently drawn card to my hand and finally laid eyes on it, but my spirits sunk to new lows when I realized I had drawn an even worse monster than _Hoshiningen_. I frowned, placing the monster _Smile Kid_ (0/0) next to the rest of my cards. What the hell was I supposed to do with a monster who had no attack or defense points? I couldn't protect my life points with him because _any_ monster Viola could summon on her next turn could easily destroy him and leave me open for a direct attack from _Kristya,_ which meant ' _Bye-bye, me!_ ' Then again…

_Wait!_

There were other cards in my hand as well - _Marie, the Fallen One_ , but I couldn't summon her, and also _Graceful Charity_! How could I have not seen this before? Sure, I would have to draw very lucky for it to be a real help to me, but it was better than nothing. I mean, with two useless monsters and an equally useless magic card in my hand, I would take what I could get.

"Have you made up your mind about what you're going to do this turn, abomination?" A jeer made its way over to my side of the field, and frankly I didn't have time to deal with Viola's bullshit, because I was gonna be praying super hard to the Heart of the Cards for _Swords of Revealing Light_ or something. I hadn't exactly been the biggest Yu-Gi-Oh fangirl before I was sent here, but I was at least seventy-three percent sure that the Heart of the Cards was some sort of made-up Egyptian god, who, for some reason, was totally legit in this world. _So, Heart of the Cards, whatever the fuck you are, I'm sorry I called you made-up. Please let me draw good cards. I'm friends with Yami so I'm totally chill and everything._

I sucked in a deep breath and activated my spell card. "I'm going to activate _Graceful Charity_!" I announced. This card allowed me to draw three cards from my deck provided that I then discard two cards from my hand. I didn't bother explaining it to Viola though, as I was pretty sure she already knew what it did.

My hand reached for my deck, my lips uttering thousands of small prayers, repeating the word "Please" like it was the only word I was capable of saying.

I swiped three cards from the top of my deck and held them in front of my face. My eyes immediately caught sight of a nifty little card called _Aegis of Gaia_ , and with as much subtlety as I could manage, I rejoiced, placing the cards in my hand and pulling out two of my cards and sending them to the grave - _Marie the Fallen One_ and _Luminous Spark_. I had discarded _Marie_ for obvious reasons. Her special ability would give me 200 life points during each of my standby phases, and judging by Viola's _Kristya_ and its 2800 attack points, I would need all the help I could get in the life-point department.

I still had _Smile Kid_ in my hand, my only monster, since I had a feeling I would need him and his special ability later, but I wasn't going to summon him just yet. The only move I could make during this turn would be to set down _Aegis of Gaia_ and hope for the best.

When I ended my turn, Viola's lips twitched and the corners of her mouth moved upwards. "No monsters to protect you?" she jeered loudly. I bit my lip and scowled at her. She just had one of _those_ voices, y'know? The ones that made you want to stab yourself in the ear and die. "This duel's going to be over sooner than I thought!"

She drew a card and smirked. I watched her eyes linger over my trap card for a moment before she put her card on her duel disk. "I'm going to summon _Smile Angel_ -" Her monster materialized right beside _Kristya_ ; she was small and slender compared to the stronger monster and had 1000 attack points less than him as well -not to mention, she was much happier, but I suppose that was on account of her name. Unlike a lot of the cards that Viola was putting out, _Smile Angel_ was a card I actually had; incidentally, its much weaker counterpart, _Smile Kid_ was in my hand, not that it would help me much, being such a useless card as it was. "Now _, Smile Angel_ , attack her life points directly!"

Trying to remain calm, I activated my trap card. "I activate _Aegis of Gaia_! It'll give me 3000 extra life points as long as it's on the field!" That didn't stop her _Angel's_ approach though, as the monster soared over to me, her arms outstretched, a sphere of energy forming between her palms. She cupped the sphere like a ball and lifted her arms above her head. She stopped moving just a meter away from me, just as she thrust the ball at me. It had been a mere few minutes since the last direct attack at my life points, and the dull ache of where _Parshath_ had struck me still hadn't gone away. I knew there was no way to escape this attack, and somehow anticipating the pain, yet receiving an even stronger pain that made it all the worse.

**Viola: 2750**

**Lorna: 3300**

I was panting from the exertion, and I knew it wasn't done yet. I had to stay on my feet, but it was getting harder and harder to do so. The agony from _Smile Angel's_ attack was still sharp in my chest, making it painful for me to inhale and exhale, as each movement sent electric shocks all throughout my upper body. I knew it was no use trying to convince Viola not to attack with _Kristya_ , so instead of giving her my puppy eyes, I settled for shooting her one of my best glares, hoping that by some miracle, my eyes would shoot laser beams into her deck and set it ablaze, causing an automatic victory for me.

_Causing Viola's death…_

No, I couldn't think about that. I couldn't afford to think about that.

"Now, _Kristya,_ it's your turn! Attack the abomination directly with your _Heavenly Strike_!"

There was nothing I could do. I would just have to grin and bear it.

I thought of closing my eyes and waiting for the impact, and I didn't know whether it was a demented, masochistic sort of curiosity, or a sad attempt to look strong, but I kept my eyes fixed on her monster.

The beating of the titan's wings suddenly became more heavy, more urgent, as he extended both of his arms to his side. I could see a bright light, like burning magnesium forming at his fingertips. He joined his hands, making the light almost blinding, then began to slowly stretch the light, extending it in front of him until it was roughly a foot in diameter. He heaved the large circle of light into the air above his head and a large beam shot out into the sky like a beacon, completely casting the field in a white glow.

My heart beat was erratic, a small rat thrashing in a cage, trying to escape imminent death, but I knew this attack wouldn't kill me, as much as it seemed that way -as much as the stiffness in my joints and the numbness in my limbs tried to tell me. My whole body was anticipating my demise, and it was all I could do to rationally convince it that I would in fact survive.

A loud _SNAP_ and the color white were the only things I could remember as a scalding sensation swelled in my torso and through my legs. My legs, covered in demons who were ecstatic, like they could sense my distress and they thrived on it.

I couldn't hear anything but a high pitched ringing, but I knew I was screaming, because my lips were stretched open and my throat was on fire. It was like all my senses had gone haywire -sight, sound, touch… they were all numb, and when it was all over, it wasn't; the attack wasn't the only thing I would have to endure in the agonizing couple of seconds that wouldn't seem to end.

**Viola: 2750**

**Lorna: 500**

Inhale. Exhale. My hearing was still dull, but I could tell by the resistance in my swollen vocal chords that I was wheezing. My sight was still dull, but I knew that Viola was smirking at me from across the field. My nerves were dull, but the pain wouldn't go away. I felt the creeping sensation on my hips, my abdomen. Each inch covered by the crawling demons was immediately followed by a stinging sensation. I suppose, though, after _Kristya's_ attack, this felt like mercy -out of the fire and back into the frying pan. And with the gore-like demons halting their ascent at my shoulders, I was looking more and more like a corpse and less like a living, breathing human being.


	17. Divine Wrath

All I could feel was pain. I couldn't differentiate or identify it; it was all pain to me, something that I, in my sheltered life, had never felt before. It was a raw sort of agony, the kind that wouldn't end, or rather, the kind that wasn't done being inflicted. It was the pain you feel when someone stabs a knife through your heart, the red-hot fury that surges through your body just as the knife breaks through sensitive skin and penetrates deeper, just before your skin grows accustomed to it, accommodates it, makes it a part of you. After that, the ache is duller, more familiar. It's like some sick part of you decided to challenge it, to boldly, insolently ask for more.

And then there was that _crawling_ …

My heart was thudding in my ears, but if I concentrated hard enough, I could almost swear I could hear the chomping of millions of tiny mouths as they ascended slowly, an erratic _**chomp… chomp chomp chomp… chomp… chomp chomp…**_

Each bite reminded me all over again of just how mortal I was, and it was taking way too long for them to stop… just as it took way too long for me to realize that they had stopped long ago, leaving my whole body paralyzed, save for my arms, my neck, and my head. It wasn't long after this deduction that I finally comprehended the finality of death like I'd never comprehended it before.

I may have spoken earlier about my parents' religious beliefs, that my body was supposedly connected to the earth, which meant that when I died, I would return to her and be born anew. I supposed it was too late to acknowledge the fact that I didn't actually believe a thing they told me. My death here would be meaningless, just as my life was.I felt like a walking, talking sham. Though, I guess looking at my life points, the sham would be over soon.

_***riiiiiing* *riiiiiing*** _

_***riiiiiing* *riiiiiing*** _

… _huh? Where was that coming from? It was familiar too… like somehow I had heard it before._

In a voice that didn't sound the least bit surprised, Viola spoke. "Looks like your phone is ringing." Her head was facing right -well, at least _my right_ -where she had been chasing me earlier. "Too bad you're a bit tied up right now. They'll have to leave a message."

 _That's right… I dropped my purse on the sidewalk earlier and that_ is _my phone! Who could be calling me right now? Joey? Yugi? Téa?_ I had just left Tristan so chances were that it wasn't him calling to ask about me. What were my friends doing then anyway? I couldn't imagine. Was Yugi dueling that magician guy yet? I knew that Téa was going to end up kidnapped later. I just couldn't remember anything that happened this season.

_***riiiiiing* *riiiiiing*** _

_***riiiiiing* *riiiiiing*** _

It didn't take long, however, for the ringing to stop, and we were left with the sound of my labored breathing and the _**chomp-chomp-CHOMP**_ -ing. And it was my turn again…

"I wonder who that was," she said, her leer spreading across her face, turning her into more of a predator than a human being. "Why don't you try getting it?" Her pixie lips opened wide and she let out several dignified laughs.

I pushed Viola and her stupid face to the back of my mind and dragged my arm through the thick air and taking a card off of the top of my deck. _Card of Compensation…_ I sighed and nibbled on my bottom lip in agitation. Yet another useless card… It was like my deck had an abundance of them, especially today. None of my cards could match hers and she was always on top - _always._

The only small mercy was the fact that I gained 200 life points in my Standby Phase, forcing the demons to seek sustenance lower and revealing a bit of my chest. However, looking down, it didn't seem like I had been shown any mercy at all, with the way my skin glowed a venomous red where it had now been exposed. My shirt had all but disintegrated on account of the leech demons and my once olive complexion was red and blistering, my flesh sweltering.

I swallowed a sob, not wanting to get an earful about how pathetic I was from the enemy. Viola… I hated her so fucking much… I didn't care if she died; in fact, I wanted her to die - _WHY WOULDN'T SHE JUST DIE?_

Now… _Card of Compensation…. Card of Compensation…_ what the fuck was I supposed to do with a stupid card like _Card of Compensation_? Sure, it could allow me to draw two cards, but that was only if I could meet its activation conditions, which required that I somehow send it to the graveyard from my hand. And what card did I have that could do _that_? Yugi insisted that I put it into my deck though… something about never knowing when it might come in handy…

What would Yugi do? What would he say?

' _Have faith in your deck.'_

' _Believe in the Heart of the Cards.'_

' _Honor your cards… '_

 _Argh! No, no_ NO! I wasn't Yugi. I didn't have an unstoppable deck and airtight strategies. I had my lame deck and I had Viola kicking my ass with my own cards. And I had myself… just as useless as the deck I was using…

' _Lorna?'_

' _Oh my gosh! Is she okay?'_

' _Lorna can you hear us?'_

' _Hang in there! We're right beside you!'_

_What? Who's there?_

My eyes were tightly shut, and all I could see were colors and dancing lights, but also large shadows. I slowly brought my hands to my face and forced myself to open them. Two shadows with colors and vague faces came into vision, and it took less than a minute for two familiar faces to come into focus.

"J-Joey? Téa? What are you doing here?" I moaned, feeling a sharp pain go through my chest as I inhaled.

And just like a dream, they were standing right there, like my distress had summoned them here. Was I hallucinating? Or had my friends really found me? Her face in a mask of horror and her jaw as tight as humanly possible without fracturing bone, Téa was there, maintaining a safe distance from me (and who could blame her really?) and tightly grasping her flip phone, wide open and on someone's contact screen.

Joey was standing much closer, grimacing, his hands balled up into fists, glaring back and forth between myself and my opponent, looking like he was unsure whether to deal with me or punch Viola in the face. "Don't worry. I'm gonna get you out of this!" he declared with resolve, bounding determinedly towards me.

Viola's shrill shriek of laughter could be heard as he approached. "Well, isn't that cute!"

I glanced down at my blistering skin and the demons clinging to my body and Joey's rough, calloused fingers just inches away from me, and screamed hoarsely at him. "Don't fucking touch it!" But the soreness that exclamation caused me was all for naught as his hands grasped at the leeches with full intent to tear them off of my skin. His hands wrapped themselves around one large chunk right under my right arm and pulled. I let out a raspy moan as it felt like I was being flayed alive, every nerve in my abdomen screamed at me -or were those the demons crying?

Fortunately, the torture lasted for a mere couple of seconds because Joey immediately jumped away from me, as though repelled by a strong force. His face was twisted in such pain that I felt my eyes water at the sight of him -I caused him that pain. He had his hands cradled over his chest, leaning over, his eyes shut and his mouth hissing profanities.

"I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry…" I told him, feeling my words hover through the air, carried by the non-existent breeze, only to fall unsuccessful to the ground at his feet.

"I'm… fine…" he grunted through his teeth.

"This is a Shadow Game… isn't it?" Téa asked before she began to rummage in her purse for something to ease Joey's pain.

I nodded my head slowly and brought my gaze to Viola, with her infuriating smug face, her two small rosy lips set in a long smile, looking like the angel of death in long robes and dark hair. _I'm going to kill her,_ kill her, **kill her**. "I'm losing," I whimpered. "Help me."

Téa was bandaging Joey's hand when she spoke -good old Téa; she always came prepared. "Lorna," she said, her voice vibrating with power and confidence. She sounded like strength and carried her tone with gusto. "You can do this. We believe in you." Her eyes met mine and her firmness made my own eyes blink away timidly. "We won't let you lose this."

"Lorna…" It was Joey's words I heard this time. "Look at me." I turned my head slowly in obedience, to see him flashing his teeth at me, grinning like he had just won the lottery, but that was just his usual smile. Wasn't he worried about me? Wasn't he terrified? "I know you can win this, alright. I'm not just saying this to make you feel better. You have a really strong hand. Just figure out how to use it. Remember, even if a card doesn't seem all that great, think of it from your opponent's point of view, and you'll realize that there ain't no such thing as a useless card."

_Think of it… from Viola's point of view?_

I looked down at my hand and tried to cast my cards in a new light. _Card of Compensation_ , eh? _ARGH!_ What the fuck was I supposed to _do_ with this hand? Literally _nothing_ in it could help me. I had one monster, and three spell and trap cards

_**Fucking hell, Lorna. Do I have to spell it out for you?** _

_Wait, what?_ That wasn't my brain. That definitely wasn't my brain. I mean, yeah, my brain was a fan of messing with me, but it was never _that_ in-your-face about it. What was going on?

_**Well, it's nice to hear from you again too, Lorna.** _

_V-Voice? Is that you?_

_**Yeah. It's been a while hasn't it?** _

Well, its personality did a complete one-eighty, but I suppose talking to me at inopportune times was just like my old friend. _Where have you been this past week?_

_**Making sure you got entered in this god-forsaken tournament. What else?** _

_So that means that you were that woman that -_

_**No, no, no, no, no. Stop right there. Of course I wasn't. I'm a disembodied voice. Do you even know what disembodied means?** _

… _Right… sorry. Well -um… Duel? Let's kinda circle back to what you were about to tell me._

_**Yeah, first of all, about that trap card you're planning on using -toss it aside for now. You should know by now that dueling is all about knowing how to make the best out of your hand, even if you can't see the right combination right now. I mean, have you even watched this show?** _

_Well, I mean, kinda… when I was eleven, but I wouldn't really watch it for the duels, though. I just watched it because I thought Kaiba was sorta hot…_

_**Ugh. Say no more. My point is that to get the advantage, your opponent should not be able to see your moves coming. And as far as I can tell, you've been pretty clear about the fact that you have no idea what you're doing in this duel -boogers, snot and all.** _

_Ahahaaa… yeah, I guess I have._ I suddenly felt very conscious of my opponent's disdain and the nauseating hint of pity in her eyes. I must have been quite the sight, sobbing, whining and feeling sorry for myself as I tried to hold my own in this duel, watching Viola manage my deck even more masterfully than I ever could. _Sorry…_

_**Nah, don't apologize just yet. I think your opponent feels sorry enough for you that she just might have let her guard down. You might be able to use this to your advantage.** _

And my reply made me so sick, but I couldn't do anything about it. I was weak. _Tell me what I need to do. Help me._

_**Of course, Lorna. What are friends for?** _

_Friends indeed…_

_**First of all -see that** _ **Divine Wrath** _**card in your hand? Set it down right now.** _

_Divine Wrath?_ That was a trap card that would be triggered when my opponent activated a monster effect. Why would the Voice make me set that? I sighed, feeling unsure of myself, but doing as I was told regardless. It wasn't like I could actually win this duel on my own anyway. I mean, judging by how _well_ I'd been holding up before my friends came, I was clearly not meant to be a duelist.

 _**Now discard** _ **Card of Compensation** _**and special summon** _ **Smile Kid.**

_Are you kidding? No, I can't do that. If she attacks me-_

_**She won't be attacking you** _

_How do you know?_ I countered, feeling nauseous all of a sudden. I didn't put much faith in my own dueling skills, let alone enough faith to actually argue against this move.

_**She won't. Trust me.** _

I hesitated, but obeyed, sending my _Card of Compensation_ to my graveyard. "I'm going to…" My gaze met the gaze of _Kristya,_ his crimson eyes glowing dull in their sockets, sending a menacing look my way, a look promising to take every last one of my 700 life points as soon as he got his hands on me.

"You're going to what?" she replied, sounding less like my opponent and more like a condescending adult talking to a young child. She threw her head back in laughter for what seemed to be the hundredth time in this duel.

"I'm going to special summon _Smile Kid_." I set the card down on my duel disk and glanced away to my left. I couldn't even face my own friends. I wasn't dueling like Yugi taught me. I wasn't trusting my cards; I think I never did trust my cards -I didn't trust them any more than I trusted myself. I was fucking pathetic. I didn't want to die though…I didn't deserve to win this duel, but oh, _God_ , I didn't want to die.

Viola covered her lips with her fingers and giggled, her voice echoing in the alley, bouncing through my ears as though the walls were playing ping pong with the sound. "Oh, how unfortunate, abomination. Have I told you about _Kristya's_ special ability? It prevents either of us from special summoning any monsters… but it's not like you really have anything that could destroy _Kristya_ anyway."

My hand froze over my card, feeling the color drain from my face, a cold, empty feeling filling the pits of my stomach. Had I been tricked?

**Divine Wrath…**

_Divine Wrath?_ Wait. This card could be triggered in response to my opponent activating a monster's effect, just as Viola was doing. It then negated that effect and destroyed the monster. I was finally going to get rid of _Kristya_! That was why I had to summon _Smile Kid_!

"You just triggered my trap card!" I exclaimed, flipping _Divine Wrath_ face up, just as I had been told..

"Wh-Wha… How did you draw a card like that?" she sputtered, her face taking on an expression of panic, one that she was making for the first time in our duel. I guess it was safe to assume that she knew exactly what my trap card did.

A blinding beam of light split the heavens and enclosed Viola's monster, _Kristya_ , in a scorching hot, white carapace. It was like Zeus himself had released his heavenly anger upon _Kristya_ and smote him with a bolt of lightning, evaporating his armor and leaving nothing of the monster but dust.

"Alright, Lorna! That was a great move! You destroyed her monster!" Téa exclaimed, clapping cheerfully. I slowly turned my head to look at her, only for her to give me a warm, encouraging smile.

Joey leapt forward and gestured ecstatically with his fist. "And that pipsqueak of a monster she's got defending her is gonna be cakewalk for a pro like you!"

I let out a disheartened chuckle. "Right… Pro…" I could feel sweat pouring into my blisters and I didn't know whether I was shivering or shuddering anymore.

"Ha!" Viola defiantly blurted. "You may have successfully defeated _Kristya_ , but he's not gone forever! When _Kristya_ is sent to the graveyard, I can send him right back to the top of my deck."

_**Now, can I trust you to take over from here?** _

_No, you can't. I'm so scared… I can't think._

If there was ever a time to let out a long exasperated sigh, for the Voice in my head, this was it. It wasn't like I could actually ever tell what it was thinking or feeling by the way it spoke, because when it spoke to me, it was almost like it wasn't even a voice at all. It was like a thought in my mind, with a mind and personality of its own. However, this time, I knew that this voice was benevolent. It wanted to take care of me, and I needed someone to take care of me right now, since I couldn't take care of myself. I mean, before I came to Domino City, I sat on the internet, doing nothing for hours- sorry, _days_ on end, and if that wasn't the perfect model of self-neglect, I didn't know what was.

_**I'll take care of you, Lorna. I promise.** _

_Thank you._

_**Now, since you discarded** _ **Card of Compensation** _**, you're allowed to draw two cards. Why don't you go ahead and do that?** _

I hesitantly reached out for my deck for the fifth time since this duel began, feeling the inside of my palms dampen and the hairs on my arms rise. This draw was probably my most important draw since I came to Domino City, and though my luck had a tendency to run out at the worst times, I was determined not to fuck this up. I had to live. I wasn't ready to die.

The cards were now in my hand, joining the lonely spell card in my hand. I had drawn a monster, _Iofiel_ , and a trap card, _Mirror Barrier,_ and although they weren't much, I was confident that the Voice would help me. It promised to, so it would know exactly what to do.

 _**Since** _ **Smile Kid** _**was special summoned, you can summon that monster you just drew and set down the other two cards.** _

" _Iofiel_?" Viola remarked, examining the monster closely, like she was trying to recall something. Sure, with 1000 attack points, _Iofiel_ wasn't that great, but the Voice had a plan; I was betting my life on that fact. "Let's see if you know how to use it."

" _ **Oh, I can definitely use it,"**_ I replied confidently. " _ **By sending one of my one-star fairy monsters from my deck to my graveyard,"**_ I skimmed through my deck for a card to send to the grave - _Zeriel_ was a one-star monster… perfect. " _ **I can activate**_ **Iofiel's** _ **special ability, making it gain 1000 attack points and raising its attack to 2000 points!"**_

I could see Viola stiffen, and I almost wanted to see her terror. It was scary, like nothing would satisfy me more than to see her suffer. However, my hopes were shot down when she glared icily at me, and in that icy glare, I almost believed that I was truly an abomination. But I was going to live no matter what.

"Do your worst."

" _ **I intend to, Viola."**_

Barely in the scope of my attention, I could hear frightened whispers. "L-Lorna…" It was like pillows were covering my ears and those whispers were unwanted, uninvited background noise when what I really needed to hear was the sound of my victory.

" **Iofiel -** _ **attack and destroy**_ **Smile Angel** _ **!"**_ I ordered, watching as my fairy struck her down. " _ **Your move."**_

**Viola: 2550**

**Lorna: 700**

She swiped a card off of the top of her deck. "First, I'm going to summon my _Archlord Kristya_ again! The great thing about _Kristya_ is that whenever he gets destroyed, he just goes back to the top of my deck, and since you destroyed my _Smile Angel_ , I also have enough fairies in my graveyard to summon him right from my hand. Because I summoned him like this, I get to take one of the fairies in my grave and add it to my hand. I think… I'll choose _Smile Angel_." The fairy I had just destroyed materialized once more on my opponent's side of the field, along with a monster which had caused me plenty of grief throughout the duel. _Kristya_ was back…

" _ **Is that all?"**_

"Not by a long shot!" She grinned maliciously. It looked so ugly on her. "You may have been able to destroy my monsters for a little while, but your _Smile Kid_ is in attack mode with no attack points to speak of. This duel is over -now!" She pointed to my monster, he long bony fingers paler than they were at the start of the duel. She was just as much of a corpse as I was. " _Smile Angel_! Attack her monster and take out the rest of her life points!"

My lips were moving of their own accord… It was okay… I was used to it. " _ **Not so fast! I activate**_ **Mirror Barrier** _ **. This protects my**_ **Smile Kid** _ **and then sends your attack right back at your monster! You also can't attack him for 3 whole turns… Not that you'll be around that long."**_

 _Smile Angel's_ blast collided with the transparent shield that had formed around my small fairy. He looked on solemnly as the blast flew right back at the attacker. I wondered what he was thinking at that moment. Was it that _Smile Angel_ was his big sister? Was this betrayal to him? Well, too bad. Viola had already crossed that line with my _Agent_ cards facing off against each other. The angel's attack burned her, causing her to squeal and shudder before her whole form disappeared.

" _Kristya_!" she shrieked, "Attack her _Iofiel_!"

The larger monster charged towards mine, the magnesium flames of his attack blinding me. The pillar of light slammed down onto my monster and I didn't need my vision to know that my monster wouldn't survive the attack. When the smoke cleared, the only monster on the field was _Smile Kid_ , idly staring around the alleyway in his little bubble of protection.

" _What?_ Why is _Kristya_ gone?" the now hysterical woman cried out, her arms shook in front of her as her pupils darted around the empty field.

" _ **It's because I activated**_ **Light of the Master** _ **right before your attack hit me,"**_ I clarified, holding up the spell card so that she could see it and then sending it to my grave. " _ **This card gives my monster 400 attack points for each fairy I have on my side of the field. It may not have protected my monster, but it gave it just enough attack points to take your monster down to the grave with it."**_

"You're forgetting something," she interrupted, her mouth a thin line, trembling in rage, fear -it was all the same to me. "My _Kristya_ can't die. He just goes back to the top of my deck."

" _ **Well, then I'll make sure he's gone for good… My turn!"**_ I announced. " _ **Draw!"**_

 _Monster Reborn!_ Just the card I needed!

" _ **I'm going to activate**_ **Monster Reborn** _ **and bring back an old friend of mine…"**_

" _Iofiel -_ " Viola began with a scoff.

I cut her off with a wag of my finger and a smirk. " _ **No, not from**_ **my** _ **graveyard -from yours… Now, hand over your**_ **Agent of Judgement - Saturn** _ **."**_

She looked like she was about to puke, standing on the other side of the field with her pale face, her pale hand fishing clumsily in her graveyard. Reluctantly, she threw over her _Saturn_ and I caught it with ease. You would not understand the rush of power I felt as I set her card down on my duel disk and watched it appear before me -my treasured _Saturn._

" _ **Attack her life points directly."**_

I briefly caught a strangled gasp from my opponent, and scowled, keeping my eyes on my own monsters. I gazed on with pride as _Saturn_ prepared his attack and launched himself at my opponent, nearly knocking the wind out of her and eliciting a hideous scream. Now, she understood how I felt. Now, that bitch was getting a taste of her own medicine.

**Viola: 150**

**Lorna: 900**

I was so close. I could feel my legs aching for release. They were stiff and paralyzed, but the pain was still there. It had been there the whole time, squeezing and easing, making sure that I never quite got used to one kind of pain for too long.

"I can't die now..." she breathed. "I'm not… ready…"

The fog was thicker now. I could hardly hear her speak, let alone whisper. I didn't need to hear her, though. I needed to win.

The demons were still ascending her body, dealing the 2400 point damage to her skin, when she reached for another card. She didn't need to look to know it was _Kristya_ again, but this time, she couldn't summon it. She set a monster down in front of her and ended her turn.

I quickly drew a card, but I didn't care what it was. This was the turn in which I would win the duel, and my life. She may have set a card face down in front of her, but she knew just as well as I did that I didn't need to destroy her monster to win this duel.

"Lorna, stop! That's enough!"

Before I could activate _Saturn's_ special ability and end this, I was interrupted by a strong voice -too strong to be Viola's voice since she was more corpse than human now. It was none other than Téa, standing in the middle of the field between _Saturn_ and Viola, holding her arms out protectively.

"You can't do this," she told me, her eyes digging fiercely into my own. Why would she protect Viola of all people? That bitch wanted to kill me and she deserved what she was about to get. "You're not being yourself, Lorna."

"You... you haven't learned a thing from this, abomination, have you?" A raspy voice broke into the argument, drilling into my ears like a mosquito. "I may die here, but your fate is sealed."

" _ **Shut up and die, Viola."**_

"Lorna!" Téa yelped in alarm. Her eyes glistened as she stared at me, looking less determined and more pained.

I didn't want to hurt her. Téa was my friend. This was a shadow duel and these were real monsters. If I had _Saturn_ wipe out the rest of Viola's life points, Téa would be collateral damage, standing foolishly in the middle of the field. " _ **Get out of my way, Téa. You'll get hurt."**_

"You don't need to do this! You can stop this duel now and you can both live!" the brunette exclaimed, stepping back and getting closer to Viola. "Viola, you _can_ end this, right?"

I didn't want to give that bitch a chance to answer. " _ **I'm warning you, Téa. Get out of the way or**_ **Saturn's** _ **attack will hit you."**_

"No, I won't."

It was my life or hers…

" **Saturn** _ **, attack."**_

And I valued my own life so much more.

" _Téa_!" someone shouted, but I didn't know what happened next. All I knew was the dark hand that was choking me, pushing its way through my lips and down my throat. The dark hands grabbed at me from all sides, covered my eyes, and tugged at my limbs. All my senses had been dulled, and I was floating on darkness and oblivion.


	18. Lumen II

A girl, draped in emerald silk and wielding a silver bow, drops onto an icy ledge, panting with exertion. White cloth is covering her eyes, and in the middle of her forehead, a bloodshot third eye struggles to stay open. Without thinking about it, her hand reaches for a silver arrow and aligns it with her bow. She doesn't even know what she's fighting right now. All she can think to do is aim and shoot whatever she deems a threat.

In front of this girl is a large flailing figure, oozing black mist -actually, at this point it's much more viscous than mist; it's dark tar, reeking of something rotten, a scent that is powerful even in a place as open as the mountain peaks. The girl can tell that the distressed creature is beginning to suffocate, and perhaps even lose parts of its -no, _her_ soul. The archer recalls something an acquaintance of hers mentioned about the one in trouble being a girl, and a blur of a face comes to mind. That face, however, is also covered in darkness.

An albino boy stands side by side with a titan, a divine being with enormous raven wings who had joined this battle not too long ago. The boy's claws dig into the dark substance, prying it away only for more to pour liberally from a crack in white armor, replacing what was lost. The titan, his eyes glowing with determination, was striking at the inky black beast, fireballs of pure holy energy forming at his fingertips.

"Hey, White-Hair!" the girl, Serenity, calls out to the boy. He is startled for a moment, but turns his head when he realizes that was meant for him. It isn't like he and the girl have exchanged names, so it's only natural that she not know. "This isn't working."

The boy, stepping away and resigning for a moment from the battle to collect his thoughts, calls back, "Whatever it is that's attacking her, it keeps multiplying and getting thicker!"

"And what happens if it keeps doing that?" she asks, her voice struggling to stay higher than the sound of the wind.

"The only thing I can think of is that it may eventually solidify, and I don't know how much damage we can deal to it if it does. I just hope I'm wrong about this."

"Then what do we do?" she asks again, sounding frantic. A part of her soul feels like the end is near for the being - _girl -_ that she has been trying to protect.

The boy muses for a moment before setting his gaze on Serenity. "Hey, I want to ask you. Why are your eyes covered?"

"What?" she hisses and he can't hear it, but he can tell his question caught her off guard. Her bow is lowered and her hands begin to shiver.

"Your eyes!" he repeats more firmly this time. "You're only using one of them."

"One?"

"The one in the middle of your forehead."

She moves her hand up, across her face, and lets it linger over her blindfold for a moment. Even with her hand blocking vision from both of her eyes, she can still see. Her hand moves up slightly to rest right where the boy had indicated and, surprisingly, her vision is blocked. There is one more eye than she is supposed to have, yet this one is different; she's not quite sure how exactly, but for one, it blinks horizontally rather than vertically. _But that can't be right? I only have two eyes._

"You didn't know, did you?" It's more of a statement than an inquiry, and he hops off of the mountain, where a titan is protecting his queen, and gracefully lands on a cliff right below Serenity. "I have an idea, but you'll have to take off your blindfold."

"Wha -" Serenity suddenly feels protective of the piece of cloth over her eyes. She's planning to keep it on until she sees her older brother. And if her vision is just a result of a third eye, then maybe she can still keep that promise to herself. "I- I can't do that."

"You have to try!" the boy hollers up to her, over the growing sounds of chaos that are beginning to fill the mountain tops. The white warrior is still struggling and her knight is still protecting her, its attacks causing some damage to the black substance, but not enough to be permanent.

"N-No…I can't take it off until…" she tries again, but her resolve is wavering. She knows that she can't be selfish -not at a time like this.

"If you've taken on the form of _Goddess with the Third Eye,_ then you must be _Light_. How can there be light when you refuse to see?" he asked.

"What do you mean," she counters. "I _can_ see!"

"Can you really?"

"Yes!" she insists.

"Without your eyes?"

Her attention immediately goes back to the blindfold over her eyes. It has been there since this battle started, and subconsciously, she's aware of that fact. She starts to speak, but sighs instead, clenching her fingers around the rough fabric of her blindfold. She tugs the knots loose and pulls, and as she does this, consciousness dawns on her -the consciousness that her eyes have been closed this whole time. She opens her hand and feels the fabric being carried away by the wind, but where it goes doesn't matter to her now.

"Open your eyes."

It's almost as though her eyelids are glued shut, and the feeling is otherworldly as she can see clearly through her third eye, the existence of which she had not even realized until a few moments ago. After a few seconds of seeking the muscles in charge of her eyelids, she manages to open them, feeling cold air and a burst of sunlight rush into the sockets. It almost blinds her and she has to blink several times for her newly awakened eyes to finally adjust to the light. All the while, Serenity becomes aware of the severe headache she had been dealing with as the muscles in her forehead begin to relax and the eye begins to close.

Using her normal eyes, Serenity's visual range is wider than ever, and perhaps that's only to be expected when is looking through two eyes rather than one. She casts her gaze down at the boy beneath her and smiles gently in gratitude. He hasn't really done much for her really; after all, he only told her to remove her blindfold, but the relief she now feels between her aching temples was giving her a different sort of clarity than her third eye ever could, and that was something that deserved acknowledgement.

Her mind knows exactly what she has to do now, but she needs to get closer to the girl. She leaps from the cliff to the lower level beside the white-haired boy, however, she miscalculates the leap. Her heart clenches; her whole body clenches. It's all over for her now… and she was so close…

Something warm closes around her hand and the sinking feeling in the pits of her stomach is replaced by the abrupt feeling of something knocking the wind out of her. She tries to get her bearings and comes to the conclusion that she has slammed into a wall, suspended by her arm. Looking upwards, she sees the boy's face, frowning and concerned. "It seems your third eye was giving you your agility and reflexes."

"Then why did you have me close it?" she snaps at him, trying not to look down.

"I didn't, but once you opened your real eyes, it must have closed on its own." He begins to pull on her arm, prompting her to grab the ledge with her free arm, which she did, climbing beside the boy and looking over to the nearby platform.

"Can't I open them at the same time?"

"I don't know…" the boy replies solemnly.

"Well, my _real eyes_ aren't doing me any good, are they?" she mutters, trying to figure out how she's supposed to get over to the battle before it becomes too late.

There's a moment of silence shared between the two acquaintances before the boy speaks up again. "You're a fairy type. Can't you fly?"

"I'm… a fairy type?"

He notes that it was probably not the best way of wording it as it seems like the girl is completely unaware of what duel monsters are, let alone the fact that she is currently taking on the form of one. "The point is, you must have the ability to fly. Try it!"

Serenity gets to her feet and tries to remember exactly how she managed to fly earlier, because she _did_ recall flying at the start of this battle, but that was also after opening her third eye. Can she still do it? _No,_ she can't afford to think like that. She has to believe she can absolutely do it. Without looking back at the boy, without truly seeing his face, she knows she can trust him. She asks even though she doesn't need an answer, "Will you catch me if I fall again?"

"Absolutely."

She takes his word as her cue and lifts off of the ground, her eyes fixed firmly on the warrior in white. The wind ruffles the fabric of her cape, her dress billowing at her feet as she wills herself forward and towards the next platform. She doesn't shut her eyes because she wants to see exactly where her mind is taking her, focusing on her destination as though that thought alone is what is keeping her afloat.

The shadow of her feet appears on the snow, which is dirtied by the slimy menace. It's still wriggling around, a thick liquid refusing to take form or shape. It's almost as if the very darkness of her shadow is nurturing the tar-like beings -or is it all one just one being. It frightens her, but somewhere in her consciousness (she isn't quite sure which part of her consciousness, however) she is absolutely certain she can conquer it.

As her toes touch the icy ground, she feels a cool rush travel up her body followed by an overwhelming heat that she's certain is emanating from her very being. Her soul is fighting off the frigid cold and releasing some form of bright energy, and it doesn't make her afraid; rather it makes her feel even braver than before. What she can't see are the shadows at her feet, slithering as fast as they can towards their dark, silver and gem-covered home, making their host shudder uncontrollably.

Serenity's eyes widen as she watches them eat her up inside, thinking that perhaps it was less painful for the white warrior to madly and blindly project the darkness rather than keep it inside like an unstable chemical in a fragile flask. She locks her gaze with the winged being standing beside his leader, anxiously trying to figure out how his master could be helped now that the enemy was untouchable.

The _Goddess with the Third Eye_ nods at him in understanding, approaching the two of them slowly, her feet causing ripple effects on the ice, melding the cold harsh winter into spring with her mere presence. By the time she reaches her ward, they are no longer on the mountain tops; they are back in the blossoming meadow. It was almost as though they had never really left it, untouched and beautiful, not a petal out of place, every blade of grass uncut.

And the warrior is docile, hovering several inches off of the ground in the middle of the field, panting heavily like a wounded beast. Her face, first obscured by glass, and then by the liquid darkness, is now fully exposed to Serenity and her companion. Her complexion is a light brown, perhaps only a couple of shades below Serenity's own, and her skin is smooth but dry and sickly, giving the redhead the idea that this other girl is not at the pinnacle of health, but rather a very ill girl. Her hair is dark and her bangs are glued to her face by sweat. What surprises the Goddess is that this white warrior didn't seem much older than her, perhaps only a couple of years at most.

"Who is she?" the boy asks, and Serenity had almost forgotten that he was still there.

She shrugs and moves even closer to the girl. She wants to raise her hand and move the dark bangs out the pallid face, but the warrior is hovering way too high for Serenity, who has decided that she won't attempt flight unless she needs to. Still, she can't help but feel her heart tug at the sight of the girl. "It looks like she's dying," she finally says, releasing into the atmosphere the words that were on her companion's mind as well. "But before… when she was fighting me, she seemed healthy. Did the black stuff do that to her?"

"I don't know…" the boy responds, running his hands through his thick white hair and sighing.

"Are you okay?" Serenity asks, his sigh beckoning her concerned gaze.

The boy hesitates but replies nonetheless. "I'm just not sure where to go from here. I've been here for a while now and I thought perhaps that it was so I could help you. I mean the _Mystical Elf_ told me…"

" _Mystical Elf_?" Serenity interjects, giving the boy a quizzical look. "S-sorry!" she apologizes quickly. "I just… I've heard that name before."

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, she _is_ a duel monster."

At this, he eyes widen and she stares right through the boy at a distant point in the meadow, her mind finally making the connection. "That's the game my brother plays!" she exclaims all too loudly for the serene setting. However she couldn't be bothered with her voice stirring the flowers beneath her feet. "How is it possible though…" Her voice becomes lower, realizing how ridiculous it sounds… _Talking duel monsters? Really?_

"I must confess… I don't know really." The boy looks down and scratches at the back of his head. "And I don't know how to leave, either," he adds solemnly, trying to avoid the girl's forest green eyes, but luckily for him, he's never in their line of sight, being as they have ventured long off into the horizon, searching for an end to the haunting yet unnerving beauty and serenity. Only her ears remain with him, waiting for him to speak again. " _Goddess,_ are you alright?"

"Yes," she answers him, moving away from the girl, the ivory axis of the meadow and trying to find out which direction she had come from. "I just don't know where I started from. I think I have to find _Peten_."

" _Peten?_ As in _The Dark Clown_?"

The words ' _Peten the Dark Clown_ ' click in her head and she turns her gaze towards the boy. "Is he a duel monster too?"

"Well… yes, he is. Though it's strange that out of all the monsters you would meet here, it would be him." The boy contemplates for a moment, his hands clenching and unclenching idly, before coming to a conclusion. "Maybe it has something to with elements… maybe…" he suggests, adding in the last word reluctantly and with uncertainty. "You are the _Goddess with the Third Eye,_ or at least, that's the form this place has given you -a Light monster, yet the monster who comes to guide you is one with the element of Dark." He turns to look at Serenity's face to see if she is having any trouble understanding, and he resumes when he sees that there are no complaints on her part. "I took on the form of a monster called _Dark Necrofear_ upon arriving; and you can probably tell that this means I am a Dark monster. If you recall, the monster I told you that I had met earlier was the _Mystical Elf_ , who is a Light monster-"

"And what do you mean by all of this?" she finally asks, and _Dark Necrofear_ isn't surprised because it is a lot to take in for someone who is not very familiar with the game Duel Monsters.

He speaks again, this time, more slowly so that Serenity can understand him completely. "You are Light, and you are met with Dark. I am Dark, but the one who meets me is Light. Don't you see the strange connection? Each of us was met by the element opposite to us. It seems a bit deliberate."

Serenity attempts to put her knowledge together and come to a neat conclusion like the other boy, but she just doesn't have the information to do so. Her mind wanders to other things though, namely the identity of her new acquaintance, _Dark Necrofear_. "So, you're not really _Dark Necrofear_?"

The boy smiles kindly and jokes, "Well, as long as it's safe to assume that you're not really _Goddess with the Third Eye,_ are you?"

"I'm not really! Though, it's one of the cards that my big brother bought for me. I haven't used it yet… but I cherish it." She puts her hands over her heart and the edges of her lips tilt upwards, as her brother's face flashes across her memory. It has been so long since she's seen him, _truly seen him_ with her two eyes, and she could only vaguely remember his goofy grin and the love and pride in his two eyes when he looked at her, and it hurt her to count the years.

"It sounds like you and your brother have been apart for a while," the boy remarked perceptively.

She nods and feels the dampness in her eyes and the sadness tugging at her face. "Actually, it hasn't been a while, technically, but… you see… I'm -" She's about to tell him about her blindness, until she realizes that she's standing in that field without her blindfold, seeing the white haired boy as clearly as the violets on the ground around her. "I _was_ blind. Well, not _blind_ so much as my vision was receding to the point where you could say I was blind… And I haven't really _seen_ my brother in so long. And it's worse because our parents are divorced, so we've been separated for a while." She doesn't understand why she's telling the boy all of this, but she can see in his light brown eyes that he can be trusted. After all, he did help her save that white warrior.

He nods in understanding and gives her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. You'll see him again. We'll definitely find a way out of this field." He cranes his neck, looking around for a sign until a dull glowing figure in the distance catches his attention. He grabs Serenity's arm abruptly, causing her to jump away from him in surprise.

"What are you doing?" she snaps at him, narrowing her eyes in irritation.

"S-Sorry!" he apologizes, pointing towards the figure he saw. "But look over there!"

She turns her head to see what he's pointing at, and she sees it as well. "What is that?" she asks, forgetting her irritation towards her companion and forcing her eyes to make out whatever is standing there.

"Should we go to it?"

She looks at him again and nods determinedly. "It's as good a sign as we're gonna get. Let's go!" Without even sparing a glance at the white warrior, she dashes towards the light, the boy following closely behind her.

Somehow, the run is shorter than they anticipate as only a minute after they set off, they are standing before a tall woman with pale blue skin and long blonde hair that frames the ethereal beauty of her face like a halo of silk. Atop her head is a crown and adorning her body is a flowing green dress that moves around in the wind, brushing against her legs like waves upon a sea shore as she hovers a few inches above the ground. Her most remarkable trait is the light that radiates from her entire being as she beckons the two unwilling warriors towards her.

" _Mystical Elf…_ " the boy breathes as he steps towards her, oblivious to Serenity's hesitance.

' _You have done well, Warrior of Darkness.'_ a voice speaks from the pits of the earth and the infinite extremities of the sky. ' _As have you, Warrior of Light.'_ Serenity is jarred when the Elf addresses her, unsure about what to do or what to say to this majestic being.

The Elf puts her hands together and closes her eyes in prayer. The young girl looks to her companion for answers, but the only thing he offers her is a smile and a nod, and she puts her faith in those gestures.

At the sides of the Elf, the two warriors can see two different sets of specks joining together and slowly growing, multiplying, and thickening. To the Elf's right, the specks are golden dust and light, each unattached unit expanding and forming bonds with the adjacent units. Whereas to her left, the units are black and violet, swirling like smoke given life and absorbing darkness from nothingness. The two different sets slowly grow into two enormous translucent orbs, each having a diameter that easily surpassed either of the warriors' heights.

"What are those?" Serenity asks without a single forethought.

' _Portals to the realm of the living, my child.'_ the woman replies raising her head from prayer.

"Realm of the living?" the boy asks; clearly, he is just as uninformed as Serenity. "Then where are we now?"

The young girl clearly recalls what _Peten_ informed her before he left. ' _This is the Inbetween.'_ The Elf echoes his words. ' _The terminal between the realm of the living, and the realm of the dead.'_

The boy's face pales when he hears this explanation. "I -I was… before I came here I was in hospital…"

Serenity catches on to what her companion was suggesting, and she, too, felt the sinking sensation of terror rack her being, like an anchor wrapped around her center, dragging her into a fog. "I was in the hospital, too…" The words fall like puke out of her mouth, and she holds a hand over her gut, overcome with nausea.

' _Fear not, warriors. You belong in the realm of the living. Something other than your demise has brought you here by force.'_

"What brought us -"

' _That is enough.'_ Her voice is gentle, but her tone is lined with annoyance. ' _You must leave this place now before you lose yourselves in this realm. Enter through these portals that I have created.'_ She gestures to her right, tilting her head ever so slightly for emphasis. ' _This Light portal will lead the Warrior of Light back to her body in the physical plane.'_ Gesturing to her left she speaks again. ' _This Dark portal will lead the Warrior of Darkness back to his own body.'_ ' She straightens and addresses the two gravely. ' _No idle moment in this realm is without danger, so say your goodbyes if you must, but hurry.'_

"We understand," Serenity speaks for the both of them, nodding at the Elf and then at the boy. "Thank you for helping me," she finally tells him.

Looking away from the Elf and towards his companion he replies warmly. "You're welcome."

"Before we leave… I wanna tell you my name, so maybe we can find each other in the realm of the living. I'm Serenity Wheeler."

Recognition flashed in his eyes and he replied cheerfully. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Serenity. My name is Ryo Bakura, and I'm certain we will meet again."

"Alright, Ryo," she says. "I look forward to it."

The pair separates, each going to the portal assigned to them by the _Mystical Elf._ Without looking back, the _Goddess with the Third Eye_ steps into her own portal, hoping that by the time she emerges, she will be simple Serenity Wheeler again, but still yearning to meet with her new friend again.

* * *

A warm feeling washes over her as her vision becomes so engulfed by light that the only thing she can see is a featureless white blank. Just as it appears though, it is gone, replaced by darkness; however, it isn't a scary darkness, but a familiar one. Her eyes are shut, and she can feel something scratchy against her eyelids.

Muffled voices steadily become clearer as she regains awareness, and she is almost certain that the recognizes at least one of the unintelligible voices. A comfortable breeze blows through her hair and the surface on which she lays vibrates slightly, familiarly.

"I don't know, man, but Joey's sure to be pissed once he sees the sister he entrusted to you unconscious," one of the voices says darkly -a male voice with both maturity and immaturity in equal measure.

"Can it, Duke," the fierce voice she recognizes as her brother's friend, Tristan, snaps back.

"I think the _both_ of you should can it," a smooth soprano with a voice like honey calls out. "You've been bickering non-stop and you're giving me a headache."

Serenity decides that it's time to make her consciousness known and shifted slightly on the cushion where she rested, a seat in a car, if the wind and vibrations were an indication. She sat up wearily and said, "Tristan? What's going on? Who are these people?"


	19. Caelestis I

"My son is dead," she sobs into the still chest of her young boy, beneath a broken neck and an irreparable future. He's gone and she never even got to see him off to university.

It was his last year of high school and he was going to go to Cairo. They had it all planned out, but they never expected to see him like this, sprawled out on the ground, bested by the staircase that watched him grow older. It watched his infantile lips utter their first words and it watched his strong, firm legs flexing after a football game, once a boy and now a man -and it betrayed him, his own home.

Now, all there is to be seen is a broken woman, hunching over her eldest son, shrieking to God, alone in a large house, asking for help and shaking violently, madly, uncontrollably.

"Mama..." he pleads. "Mama, it's going to be okay. Please don't cry. I'm right here." However, she can't see him, her boy hovering, his back against the wall of their home, staring in horror at his own dead body.

"God almighty," she pleads. "God, oh, merciful one, please give me the strength to accept Your holy will."

The boy feels his chest constrict and a foul stench enter his nostrils. Someone is standing beside his mother, draped in filthy black robes that almost hover around its being as though carried by a soft breeze. He can't see the being's face, due in a small way to the hood covering its head, but he also can't help but shake the feeling that this person had no face, only oblivion.

"H-Hey! Get away from my mother! Don't touch her!" he cries out, half expecting it to ignore him, but to his surprise. Its head inexplicably turns to him, and his suspicions are confirmed, as all he can see where a face should exist is dark smoke, and for all he can tell it may not even be human.

Whatever it is this creature is standing way too close to his mother. Can't she see its silhouette bearing over her, its very being like a dark overhanging cloud? Is it her pain making her oblivious? Or is it something else? Could it be that this creature of darkness has an existence akin to the boy's own spectral manifestation? Logically, the boy, like the hooded ghoul, should not be there, but who is he to question things that humans are not meant to know? The sight of his mother makes him want to burst out of his skin, tear out of his invisible binds, and rush over to her side; however, he can't, and he knows that the dark creature has everything to do with it.

_GIVE IN_

"NO! MOTHER!" he resists and it's futile. _FUTILE. mORTal._

_GVE iN_

It's a command.

The boy thrashes against an invisible enemy, but he's only wasting his time. There's no escape... he must give _iN_. _HE CAN NOT BREAK FREE. YOU CAN NOT BREAkFREE._

_GIVE IN_

**No…**

_GIVE in. OBLIVION is INEVITABLE_

He can't do anything. Anything he does _I_ will stop him. _I_ am your judgement. _mORTAL_.

_GIVE IN_

_GIVE_

**IN**

**I GIVE IN**

_HE submits, as was destined from the very beginning. THERE is no escape from us. YOU can never escape._

The boy is still now, swaying with the ship on the serene waters, nearing their destination. His hands are shaking on the stainless steel railing, his eyes staring into the endless azure of the glass ocean, terrified of the infinite abyss below. It's nothing like the darkness that forced its way into his soul. He can't see it anymore, but he can still feel it seeping into his skin at this moment. It's so saturated now, and yet it continues to push its way in. He can feel it pushing every part of his true self out to make room for itself.

He feels his stomach and intestines folding in on themselves; his throat is stinging as acidic bile settles in the back of his mouth, scorching him. There's nothing in his stomach. He hasn't eaten since he arrived -if he can even call it an _arrival_. It's abrupt, and he doesn't understand, but all of a sudden, he doesn't feel like himself. He feels out of place -in the middle of someone else's life, and it's as though his soul is compressed and shoved into a box. He doesn't fit. His soul is aching for release, but he cannot allow it that freedom for fear that it will take him to the inescapable inevitability.

He can do naught but drop to his knees and clutch at his weak stomach, his hair drawn like a sweaty curtain over his face. It's much longer than he remembers it. It's the same color, the same texture, but it's not his. His body is smaller as well -a bit shorter, a bit leaner. He is not the same person he once was. Even his hands feel different as they touch his skin, like the hands of a stranger. Every move he makes feels wrong. He despises it. He despises everything in this world. He despises everyone who calls him by _the other_ name -the name that isn't his own. He wants destroy everything and bring _him_ down as well.

He leans forward and empties his gut, feeling as chunks of his soul are extracted collaterally among the blood and the darkness. The liquid at his feet, slowly sliding down the edge of the ship, is completely black. And it is then that he realizes that none of this is real. It can't be real. And he will do whatever it takes to wake himself up from this dream.

* * *

Yami Yugi has just won the duel. No less is expected of him, although that fool Arkana did put up a fight, he was never a match for the King of Games to begin with. The foolish jester thinks only with his heart, however. He thinks he can escape **ME**. **HE CANNOT ESCAPE ME**. The Master is not pleased.

The Pharaoh is preoccupied with his own escape, as Arkana extracts an extra key from his sleeve -always _tricks_ with this one. Does he think his Master doesn't know? His Master can see into his mind. His Master always knows what his mind maniacally whispers to him.

Arkana's grin is demented and hysterical as he makes to lean down, only to feel his limbs frozen in place. He cannot even remove that cheater's leer from his face as he stares at his key, his escape slowly crawling away from him. The powerful saw below is still whirring, growing ever closer to amputating his feet.

_I can't move. I'm frozen. I CAN'T MOVE._

**Arkana.**

_Master Marik!_

**You didn't hold up your end of the bargain.** CHEAteR CHEA TErC hEATeRcheA TEr.

_N-No!_ Insolent. _Just give me another chance! Spare me!_ LiA RLIA RliaR LIArliA R

**No. You cheated, Arkana. You thought you could ESCAPEME.**

He must be punished. Punish him. He deserves no mercy.

_Master Marik, please spare my life! All I wanted was to see my Catherine again._

Cheater.

A chuckle rumbles from Marik's chest. He can't help but to laugh at the simple-minded escape artist, bound by steel shackles, and the disgusting fantasy of freedom that his asinine mind had entertained. **Where's your magic now, fool?**

It is effortless to make the key disappear from that man's hand. To watch him sink into despair is beautifully compelling, his mind as Marik can see it, slowly decaying, falling in bits and pieces into nothing. _The key! It's gone!_

**Is your mind playing tricks on you, Arkana?** LIAR LIAR LIAR **Or have you lost control of your feeble, little mind.** CHEATER CHEATER CHEATER **That key in your hand doesn't really exist.** PUNISH HIM

He can't even see his freedom slip from his slimy fingers. Oh, what a fool…

"Hold on!"

This ridiculously determined and hopeful voice belongs to none other than Yugi Muto, the vessel of the Pharaoh. Does this useless boy think he **CAN INTERRUPT ME AND MY JUDGEMENT. HE IS A FOOL AS WELL.**

Yugi rushes forward, towards the frozen body of Arkana, smiling eerily in contrast to the wretched wasteland in his mind. And he will die this way. None shall intervene **in my judgement.**

Before the young boy can make it to the key on the ground one foot away from Arkana, a barrier, strong like steel, but not as corporeal, is erected from the ground in front of him. It extends from the westernmost end of the arena to the easternmost end, completely closing off the jester's side of the hall. It is impenetrable, and the child knows better than to attempt to cross. Even the stupidly brave do not barter with their lives when they know their is no hope. And yet, Yugi stands in front of the barrier, as though his mere presence has enough power to waver Marik's decision.

To Yugi's surprise, the spinning blades stop just before striking Arkana's legs. Before the relief can register on the man's inanimate face, the shackles are opened, but rather than fall face first into the barrier, he is suspended into the air by thin wires like a puppet.

"What!" the spiky haired boy gasps, taking a step back from the barrier. "Marik! What are you doing to him? Let him go!"

At this, the Egyptian boy takes over the mind of the slave and begins to speak to the weakling. " **He cheated, Yugi. Don't you think cheaters deserve to be punished?** "

"But this is insane!" Yugi exclaims, unsure whether to be shocked, outraged or just infuriated. "What do you plan on doing to him?"

" **I am giving him what he deserves.** "

Right after that ominous statement, a large beam, around two inches in diameter, shoots through Arkana's abdomen. It then pierces through the barrier and passes a meter above Yugi's hair, causing the body above to sway back and forth slightly. Arkana's face twitches, but the gleeful smirk is still there, and Yugi can't even tell whether this is due to his face being frozen by Marik, or due to Marik's own masochistic glee. He wonders if Marik can even feel the pain he has inflicted on Arkana.

The horror of what Marik intends begins to show on Yugi's face in the form of twisted realization. Red begins to stain the magician's coat, slowly spreading like a disease around the hole where the beam still hangs. The young boy can feel himself become dizzy at the sight, his mind trying to erase the image that's flooding his mind -the image that his eyes can still see -the one that he can't look away from, and the contradiction of this state is making his temples throb. He can't handle it and his mind calls desperately for his strength, the Pharaoh. It doesn't take long for the old spirit to hear his dear friend's call and take in the diabolism of the scene.

" **How nice of you to join us, Pharaoh.** "

Yami Yugi doesn't know where the voice is coming from, but he knows two things: it belongs to Marik, and it's origin is the body above him. "Stop this madness immediately, Marik!" he cries out, his voice more firm than his friend's, as well as more commanding.

Marik sneers where his foe cannot see him then replies, " **I do not serve you. Not anymore.** **Now, watch closely, as I demonstrate what happens to those who defy me!** "

At first, it seems like nothing more than a tug of string, but it causes a domino effect of calamities. The string holding Arkana up unravels, causing the fabric of his jacket to begin to unravel. Arkana's body begins to bob up and down with the string.

_M-Master Marik! I repent! I repent! Please stop!_

**Silence, slave. You deserve nothing less.** CHEATER

When Arkana's sleeves have disintegrated, it is revealed to Yami Yugi, that the wires are woven more deeply inside of Arkana. There are puppet strings jutting out at different points on his arm, seemingly woven into his skin.

_No, please. I can't take anymore of this. It hurts, Master. It hurts._

LIAR

The Pharaoh is shocked to speechlessness. He cannot formulate the correct arrangement of characters, words, sentences to stop this. His mind is running at a high speed and his eyes are analyzing the room around him, trying to find a way to bypass this hopeless situation. "Marik…" The choked whisper comes out almost as an afterthought as he can't bear to be silent as this happens in front of him. The atmosphere is hushed around them with Marik keeping his slave quiet using his mind tricks. The only thing he can hear is a dull banging that his mind can't even afford to focus on with Arkana minutes away from death.

_It hurts. It hurts so much. Master, it hurts._

The strings are tugged again, pulling at his skin. And just like the colorful blazer, it starts to come apart, elegantly, falling to the ground like silk. Yami doesn't want to look at the blood, the exposed flesh beneath Arkana's fragile skin layer, so he moves his eyes to the man's face. Marik is still controlling it, even now. Arkana's lips stretch wide open like a doll's mouth, and from those pale and chapped lips, a loud yelp escapes.

And another…

And another…

And soon it dawns on the Pharaoh that Arkana isn't screaming, he's laughing. Cackles of glee erupt from his lips, breathlessly and almost to no end. Marik's laughs are indiscernible from Arkana's laughs. Yami can hear them both. It's like a demoniac cacophony that, in a sick and abominable way, was music befitting such an atrocious scene. Meters of string and wire dropping to the ground in piles below the man, his chest bouncing up and down, gasping for breath, and then beginning his raving cachinnation once more.

Yami takes a couple of steps back, unable to handle the sight before him, but unable to turn around. He moves slowly away, while his eyes are locked with the mad eyes of the dying man in front of him. There is pain in those eyes -and hopelessness. Wherever Arkana's mind is, it doesn't want to keep laughing. His throat hurts, and the strings won't stop.

Around and around they go… taking more and more of his sanity with them.

Another tug, and the wires are moving even quicker and more erratically. His body begins to bounce in its suspension; his mask flies off, revealing ancient scars and a look of pure hysteria.

_IT HURTS MASTER IT HURTS MASTER IT HURTS MASTER IT HURTS_

Another tug, and it is not the wire that moves more quickly, but the arm. With a pop, like a gunshot, which Yami is certain can be heard outside, whatever is left of the two limbs on his torso is torn off and flung to the sides of the room, swinging wildly on the wires. His ears are ringing and his head is throbbing; he can't look away.

The laughter is worse now. It is now a mix between weeping and pure joy. The man's eyes are filled to the brim with tears, dropping down his face uncontrollably like a violent rainstorm, but his voice betrays nothing but incomprehensible bliss. Yami can't even imagine the kind of insanity that gripped Marik's mind as he committed such a heinous and inconceivable act of villainy. What kind of warped logic is justifying this in Marik's dark hole of a mind?

All it takes is another tug of the wire for the once whole man to erupt in a rain of blood and sparks. However, it doesn't pass the barrier in the middle of the room; it simply sizzles at the touch. Just how deeply woven were the wires in that unfortunate magician's body for them to cause this monumental damage? His remains don't even look human anymore. In fact, the most human things in the room are the bloody appendages that are still swinging aimlessly on their wires. The rest of the room is simply soaked in red. Even the bones are obliterated, leaving nothing but dust in the air. And like the finale to a great symphony, the great gong to close the ceremonious event, the beam that had been in Arkana's gut drops to the ground with a loud clang, bouncing in place once, then settling quietly.

Yami releases the breath that he has been unconsciously holding in his chest. All that is left to him is incomprehension. What… just happened? Is this what Lorna meant when she spoke of Marik's twisted ways?

Just then, the banging becomes louder and the metallic door bursts open, releasing some of the tightness in the room.

"Yugi!" It's Tristan's voice.

The Pharaoh finally tears himself away from the scene in front of him. He feels sick, breathing in the dust of Arkana's remains, having Arkana inside of his lungs. It's enough to make him suffocate himself where he stood, but this isn't his body, it's Yugi's body. He must do everything in his power to protect the boy from this.

"Tristan. Don't let Téa see this. Let's leave this place," he says dryly to his friend, rushing towards the door. "Please. Just."

It doesn't take great eyesight for Tristan to notice the crimson dripping and sliding down the walls on the far end of the arena. Immediately, he turns and rushes his companions out before they even enter. "Nothing to see here!" he cries out loudly, trying to feign an optimism and joy that Yami could hardly muster up at that moment.

"Thank you," he mumbles as he passes by the brunette, shutting the door behind him. "I couldn't… protect Yugi from all of it." He feels disgusted with himself and with the monster that he will have to duel later on. Most of all, he just wants to keep Yugi away from all of this, but Yugi is no child, and he knows that better than most. Yugi just may be the strongest person he knows, yet the boy has a long way to go before he can face the true evils of the world.

"You're safe," a feminine voice remarks and a hand reaches for his shoulder.

He shrugs it off and looks down at the ground. "I'm sorry, Téa, but I can't…"

"The Pharaoh's been through some stuff," Tristan intervenes, his eyes gently telling the girl that now is not the time to reassure their spirit friend. All present, Téa, Mokuba, and Mr. Muto, are aching to ask just what happened, but the look on Tristan's face tells them that some things are better left unsaid.

* * *

His head hurts. It hurts so badly. His whole body aches. Why did he do that? Why did he do that? Why did he insist on feeling that foolish jester's pain? He can't move his body anymore. It hurts too much. He collapses onto the floor in his chambers, unable to speak. Although he is not physically hurt, his breathing is labored. The Millennium Rod breaks free from his grasp and falls to the ground with a loud _THUNK._

Why didn't everything stop? Why did it make him feel everything until the end? Why?

"Master Marik… are you alright?" the voice gruff and intimidating, but it is also gentle and laced with concern for his master.

And he's not alright. He expected everything to end. This whole farce should have ended. Why didn't it end?

"You shouldn't overdo it next time." A hand moves to his shoulder and flips the boy's body over, revealing his pained face and the emptiness in his eyes. "Please, be careful, Master Marik."

**And why does he keep calling me that? Why do they all keep calling me that?**


	20. Blisters and Sores

_Oh, God, I feel sore all over._

It's a terrible ache that I felt -the kind that makes your muscles give up. It wasn't so bad when I wasn't trying to move, but even fidgeting around made knives shoot through my skin. It didn't help that I was cold, lying on something really hard and uncomfortable, like a metal surface. The feel of it on my exposed back made me want to vomit, so I guess it helped that I couldn't sit up; maybe the force of gravity would keep the contents of my stomach down.

I guess you could say it took me longer than it should have to realize that I was in a box. Yes, a box. Also, I was naked. Yes, one hundred percent buck naked, covered by a thin sheet that hardly even qualified as a blanket. So, uh, not the best situation to be in when you regain consciousness after a Shadow Game, y'know?

I felt cold sweat trickle down the back of my neck as my arms tried to stretch to the best of their ability in the allowed space. I estimated around five inches at either side of my body and around fifteen inches vertically. So, obviously, whatever I was lying in wasn't built for comfort.

_No, no, no. What's going on?_ I thought desperately.

Did this mean I lost the duel? I mean, I didn't exactly remember winning it, which wasn't really a good sign as far as I was concerned. The last thing I remembered was Joey and Téa coming to cheer me on. I could vaguely remember getting the upper hand in the duel, but I don't remember either of our life points hitting zero. Oh, God... Viola said that if passed out before the duel finished then it would be an automatic defeat for me. I lost. Oh, my God.

Still, to be quite frank, I expected the experience of death to feel a bit more like an out of body experience and less like being trapped in a metal box. You'd think burning in the flames of hell as a punishment for losing would feel a bit more agonizingly painful, and a bit less cold -y'know, all things considered and all. I mean, at most, I just felt uncomfortable. Was the Shadow Realm full? Was this some kind of waiting list deal where I'd have to wait for someone else's eternity of hell to finish or something? Because first of all, that's contradictory, and second of all-

-what the fuck is that infernal noise? It sounded like someone was going around pushing a cart across the floor and then slamming it against the wall. The rolling and slamming reverberated all around me, almost like it was coming from the wall, and each time a slam sounded, the cycle would start again at an even closer point.

And to add to that, my butt was _really, really_ cold. In fact, I was feeling cold in places I was unaware I even could feel cold. The only thing preventing me from shivering was the soreness in my muscles that overpowered the need to create warmth -well, either that or I was so cold my entire body was numb.

The slamming noise was right next to me when I heard the footsteps. Usually, when faced in a situation where I'm trapped with no hope at escape, I would welcome the sound of rescue, but this time, I was feeling incredibly vulnerable -a side-effect to having your boobs and privates out, unfortunately. I had this feeling that no matter who finally rescued me, I wouldn't be able to live this down. I mean, seeing as I was a teenage hermit before I fell into this coma, this wasn't something I thought I would ever have to deal with.

I held my breath when my surroundings became deathly silent. Was it over? Was I ignored? Forgotten? Did this mean I was saved? Or doomed? I really hated how I had absolutely no idea what was going on. It was the most powerless I'd ever felt in my life. Though, looking on the bright side, if we take all facts into consideration, this might just have been the most powerless I would ever have to feel, and I didn't know how beneficial that was to me at this particular moment.

I felt my whole body shake as the platform I was on began to vibrate; and in an abrupt and quick motion, it moved, and with it, the light, albeit a dull light, entered my eyes. Would it be weird if I wanted whoever was responsible for this to just put me back? Because I was not dressed and, if my hearing was still at its best, I was at least seventy-eight percent sure that the breathing above me sounded male.

"Found you," he remarked in a raspy voice that sounded half bored and half bemused. I tried to crane my neck to look at him, but my neck wasn't responding very well being as it was still sore from my duel. Still, something about that voice made me feel like I should have known who it was. However, as was its norm, my brain wasn't fully cooperating with me.

Trying to make my voice come out of my aching throat, I spat some words at the stranger. "Where… am… I?"

A chuckle rumbled from his chest. "Why, _Lorna_. Can't you tell? I mean, I'm sure you've noticed." He knew who I was. He knew my name. How the fuck did he know my name? Did he kidnap me? Was he a Guardian like Viola?

And noticed? Noticed what? Noticed… noticed… "Hell?"

He grunted and replied, "No, why don't you try being a bit more creative?"

I had no idea what he meant or what he was doing. I could hear the mystery boy rummaging behind behind my head, out of my limited field of vision. I could hear fabrics brushing against each other and something light and hard drop onto a table. What was he up to? I just hoped he wasn't planning on dissecting me on this… table…

Wait. Be more creative?

No. _No._

He carted me out of the wall… No, he took me out of the wall… It was almost like I was in a drawer or something. Or a freezer.

_No, first of all, fuck you. And second of all, that's impossible._

"Looks like you've figured it out." He came to stand right beside me. I couldn't see his face, but I could see his thin hips and his firm but bony, pale hands (you know the kind -perfect for squeezing the life out of you and all that jazz).

"A… morgue. I'm in a morgue…" I spoke quietly, trying to make sense of it. I wasn't dead. I had a pulse and blood pressure… I was _breathing_ , for fuck's sake. I was way too alive to be in a morgue. Who would be sick enough to put me in a morgue freezer? Unless… Unless I wasn't in a morgue, and this guy kidnapped me to perform some sick experiment on me. Who would kidnap me though? And how? I mean, I'm pretty sure I was with Joey up until I lost consciousness, and those abs of steel spoke for themselves - _and those ripped arms…_ Not that I was looking, of course! It was all merely scientific observation… for _science_.

"Hmm… I can see you're thinking hard about something," he said, interrupting my thoughts. "Don't hurt yourself. You got it right this time. Try not to get _too_ creative." You know, I wanted to talk back at him, but seeing as I was having really weird pervy thoughts about a boy younger than me, maybe it was good that he stopped me before I got too creative… for science.

"So, an actual morgue, huh?" I muttered, blinking my eyes slowly. Was it weird that even my eyelids were sore? "But I didn't die, right?"

"Well, by _your_ strange definition of death? No, you're very much _alive_."

"And who are you?"

Slowly, he leaned forward, his head hovering over my face, and his pale, white hair dangling over my face. Wait. Wait, _wait._ He smirked at me upon seeing the recognition on my face (I'm pretty sure my face went through around ten different shades of green), looking like a child who just squashed a bug under a magnifying glass. "I don't think I need to tell _you_ that, _Lorna_."

Pardon my French, but - "FuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuck." The words were spoken under my breath like a hiss, but I saw his grin widen significantly. I felt myself shudder a bit under the insignificant sheet covering my bits and unmentionables. No, no, no, _no._ This is the _last_ person I wanted to see. "I m-m-mean… n-n-no, who a-a-are you?" I asked, my voice rising an octave above its usual pitch. I didn't exactly know why I wanted to keep up the façade of ignorance when I knew that he knew that I knew exactly who he was. I was actually surprised the British accent didn't tip me off earlier…

Bakura. In case the white hair, British accent and all-around shitty personality didn't tip you off. And it wasn't the cute, dorky one either; it was the asshole -the shitty fucking dickwad that sent people to the Shadow Realm for no reason and removed Maximillion Pegasus's actual fucking eyeball. Oh, God. Now, I was having serious, real worries about him dissecting me on this table for shits and giggles.

"Come on, _Lorna._ " Ugh, stop saying my name like that. _If this creepy, bug-eyed, ancient Egyptian asswipe tries to touch me, I will scream bloody murder. I don't care how much my throat hurts._ "I'd enjoy your act much more if you were a more competent actress, but I don't have time for your nonsense. I won't humor you with introduction. We have to leave this hospital quickly." He turned around and walked back to wherever he was rummaging earlier, walking back to me in less than a minute and dropping something heavy on my chest. "As much as it would satisfy me to watch you lose every ounce of your dignity, we don't have time for that, so you should probably get dressed."

_We don't have time?_ Time for what? What part of the season was this? If Bakura was in the hospital, could this have been after his injury? Wait. That meant that Mr. Muto was here! If I could only get dressed quickly and find him, I could get away from this creep. I knew I wanted to find him earlier, but not like this, y'know? I kind of expected my first meeting with him to be one where we were both dressed. Maybe I could trap him in an alleyway like Marik with a motorcycle and everything -well, maybe not like that, but I hoped I would at least feel more dignified than this.

I reached over my chest for the pile of clothes he had just dropped. They weren't the clothes that I was wearing in the morning, but they were still clothes that I bought with Téa. Where did he get these? There was even a pair of underwear, and although I wouldn't have minded a bra, it was better than nothing. I mean, beggars can't be choosers. The first order of business was covering my chest, so I grabbed the baggy neon pink shirt and slid it over my head.

"You know," Bakura started, his voice coming from somewhere over my head, "you're not attractive enough to warrant my attention, so you don't have to keep trying to hide." I heard his steps coming closer to me, stopping just beside me. He leaned over me again and gave me a sinister grin. "I promise I won't rape you, if that's what you're afraid of." _Oh, buddy, I'm afraid of much worse things coming from you._

Nevertheless, whether or not he was trying to give me privacy, he walked away from me, and I was just glad not to have his breath on my face. I braced my hands on the metal surface below me and heaved myself into a sitting position. I craned my neck around, to examine the room and to locate Bakura. I didn't care what he said; I didn't want him watching me put on my delicates. The psychopath in question was leaning over a dissection table rummaging through a bag. From what I could see, the dissection table didn't have a corpse on it, so that was a bit of a relief.

Feeling my heart flutter in anxiety, I grabbed the _delicates_ I had been provided with and tossed away the blanket swiftly to put them on. All the while, I cast nervous glances at Bakura. I didn't trust him -not by a long shot. Though, true to his word, he didn't seem to intend to turn around again. I didn't know whether to feel relieved or offended. It kinda makes you think about how much self worth I actually had if some weird sick part of me actually wanted the crazy murderer to check me out. _Ugh, just go fall in a ditch, Lorna._

Reaching across my legs, I noticed something curious, though. My legs didn't quite look the same as they did that morning; they didn't have the same feel as they did either. They had been aching for quite some time, and it was becoming increasingly clear what the cause of that stinging sensation I was feeling up and down my legs was. My legs were covered in red warts and blisters, like bug-bites or burns; I couldn't tell which it was, but they were all over my skin. My feet looked especially swollen.

It was like something cold had slipped into my gut and it was freezing me from the inside. I felt chilly all of a sudden and my breathing became shallow. Had those _things_ done that to me? Wasn't their effect supposed to wear off at the end of the duel? Why hadn't it? Why was I covered in scars? I held my breath as I slowly lifted the hem of the shirt to gaze down at my abdomen. As I had expected, not even there had I been spared. The remnants of that duel were everywhere on my body, tattooed onto my skin so I would never forget about… _her._

"Are you done yet?" I had almost forgotten he was there during my moment of despair. It was like a violent slam back into reality, and the reality of the situation was that I was covered in painful blisters, half-undressed and in the presence of the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, whose name I really needed to learn since it wasn't fair to the actual Ryo Bakura to associate everything that asscrack dead guy had done with his name and body.

Realizing that I still had nothing but a shirt and panties on, I called back, "N-No! I'm not. Don't look yet!" I yelped out that last part involuntarily, but he didn't feel the need to comment on it so, for that, I was thankful.

Soon enough, after much struggling, almost falling off of the platform, and realizing that it was futile for me to try to put anything on my legs while I was elevated three feet off of the ground, I heaved my legs over the side of the platform and tried to stand on the ground. I put on the short-shorts I had been provided with, and then struggled with the thigh-high leggings. The cotton wasn't helping my blisters much, but I wasn't leaving my legs exposed to the elements looking like that.

"Y-You can look now," I mumbled. Why did I fucking _say_ that? And why did I keep stuttering around him?

At hearing my words, he turned around. "Don't you need a pair of shoes?" he asked, glancing down at my feet.

The scrutiny caused me to wiggle my toes slightly. I wasn't going to admit that I had completely forgotten that I needed shoes, so I shot back at him, "You didn't give me shoes." I just hoped that whatever shoes he did give me would treat my aching feet kindly, because the stockings weren't doing them any favors.

He sighed and dropped a pair of boots to the ground, the impact of which caused a loud _thud_ to echo throughout the morgue. Before moving to put them on, my head turned rapidly to the door. What if someone caught us here? What would they do? They'd see a couple of teenagers in a morgue with one of the freezers open and a ruffled blanket. I didn't have to wonder what they'd think.

Bakura seemed to notice my alarm so he spoke up calmly, gesturing with one of his thumbs towards the door, a smirk on his face. "Nobody can hear us. I've taken care of the guards."

I was shocked by the audacity he was displaying. "You've ' _taken care of the guards'?_ "

He frowned. "I didn't _kill_ them if that's what you're asking."

" _Well!_ As long as you didn't _kill them_. I mean, what's a little trip to the Shadow Realm? It's character building at least!" I remarked, dropping down to my knees to start unlacing the boots that Bakura had just unceremoniously presented.

The boy gave me a vague look that I'm sure translated to something along the lines of 'I want to obliterate you, but you're not worth my time' and I chose to pay it no mind since he seemed to need me alive, and that gave me a small sense of safety. "Why don't you take the sarcasm down a notch and put your shoes on before I send _you_ to this _Shadow Realm_ you speak of?" His tone suggested that he was mocking my choice of words, and I began to wonder if I had made a mistake. It _was_ called the Shadow Realm, right? I mean, I hadn't misspoken; I was at fairly certain that it was referred to as 'Shadow Realm' when I watched it. Then again… maybe not.

* * *

We were silent as we made our way through the quiet hospital, and it wasn't a comfortable silence. The bag he had been looking through earlier turned out to be my own bag -the very same one I had been carrying throughout the day, and now it was in his hands, as I was a bit too scared to ask him for it. In the ten minutes it took us to reach the hospital lobby, I felt guilt, fear, uncertainty, and agony. The boots that I had been given were pressing uncomfortably on the blisters covering my feet and ankles, and every step I took made me feel the burn of my entire foot being skinned. My legs weren't much better. While I appreciated that my outfit thoroughly covered my blisters, I wondered if I might have had to dress the wounds at least before getting dressed. The stockings were rubbing against my legs and the friction caused me to stop in my tracks several times -much to Bakura's annoyance.

We eventually made it to the lobby and it didn't seem like any of the pus filled blisters covering my legs was about to pop anytime soon, so I guess that was good, too. Unfortunately, it was only as Bakura and I passed the threshold and exited the hospital that I realized I had completely forgotten about my plan to make a run for it and find Mr. Muto. I began to curse my absent-mindedness, but in my defense, with the state that my legs were in, I probably would not have been able to escape, much less outrun Bakura, who, in spite of his thin and bony physique, still looked to be very athletic.

Looking outside, I found out that it was very late in the evening. I guess I could kiss any slight chance I had at a spot in the finals goodbye. Now that I was injured as well, I wouldn't even dream of trying to get the rest of the required locator cards. The thought of going through another duel made my legs tingle as though they unconsciously remembered the abuse they had suffered during my last duel.

Just before descending the steps before the hospital, I stopped for what may have been the twentieth time since I left the morgue. My legs were throbbing and my feet were going to break off of my body if we continued at this rate. The only parts of my body that weren't covered in blisters were my arms, my neck, and my head. The rest of my body was torturing me, dragging me down, draining my energy. I reached down and tugged my stockings down a bit, glancing at the blisters beneath them. They didn't look good, but they could have been worse…

" _Can_ you walk, or _can't_ you?" An irritable growl sounded from somewhere in front of me.

"I-I'm fine…" I murmured, covering the wounds again and attempting to descend the stairs. It was only after my first step that I realized I couldn't do it. Going down the stairs was causing more friction and more pressure on my damaged skin, and before I could stop myself, I toppled over. _Talk about déja-vu!_

Oddly enough, my head didn't hit concrete. I felt something restricting my arms and a firm surface against my back. I suppose I should have expected him to catch me. "I would appreciate it if you would stop trying to die, _Lorna_."

" _Noted_ …" I uttered bitingly.

"You can't walk," he stated, pushing me out of his grasp and holding me steady at an arm's length away from him. I didn't even need to reply to him because my wobbling legs did that for me.

Before he could say anything, I spat out, "I don't need you to carry me or anything, though! I just need a bit of help on these stupid stairs and then I can manage on my own!"

"Hmph…" His eyes flashed briefly in the moonlight and then glanced away from my face. His answer infuriated me, but I didn't want to talk to him anymore, feeling humiliated enough that I had to hold onto him for support as I went down the stairs. It took us an agonizingly long time to reach the bottom of the stairs, and all the while, I glared lasers at the ground; a heavy and overpowering sense of loathing was growing more and more inside me for the arm I was currently attached to.

"So where are we going now?" I asked, still clinging to his arm once we reached the bottom -not because I particularly enjoyed holding on to the arms of deranged killers, but because I was still trying to steady myself enough to successfully walk without _him_.

He glanced at me, a look laced with annoyance and boredom. He held his arm out almost in exasperation, like he couldn't wait for me to let go, and, let me tell you, the feeling was most definitely mutual. "Well, you're going to accompany me while I acquire six locator cards."

Wait… he didn't have his locator cards yet? How did he get those again? "And where are we going to find those? I mean, it's too late for anyone to still be out dueling."

"I've got an idea," he replied, grinning at me. I took that gross smile of his as a cue to let go of his arm and finally stand independently beside him. I was just glad that, for the time being, I didn't know what was on his mind, because I didn't _really_ want to know.


	21. Adding Insult to Injury

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't remember what was supposed to happen at this point of the show. To my recollection, the evil Bakura was after locator cards, and at no point in the show was he being held back by some girl named Lorna who could barely walk on her own -not that I would admit that I couldn't walk, but I wasn't exactly resisting the arm he offered me for support. We were proceeding very slowly through the city, and it made me wonder if we were going to end up way behind "schedule" (or should I say "plot") and miss the blimp ride.

We were walking through a nearly empty park. If it weren't for the lamps scattered around, we wouldn't be able to see a thing, and if it weren't for the idle chatter of duelists and other people all around, it would be deathly silent as well. Bakura hadn't said a thing to me since we left the hospital. It wasn't like I wanted to hear his stupid raspy voice, because I didn't. He was a poopface and a huge jerk, and anything he had to say was probably stupid.

_Ohhh, burn. That one really hurt, Lorna._

Ugh… I may have been an introvert, but humans are social creatures, and I felt tired and bored, especially since I had nobody to vocalize my complaints to. It's not like Bakura would care if I were tired. I was already holding him back with the slow pace we were walking in. The silence allowed me to sink into my thoughts -whether my mind even wanted to process the events of this day or not. It seems like every time my brain went into unfamiliar territory, it simply flinched away and brought me back to reality.

I couldn't even think of a single reason why Bakura would want me around. Obviously, it wasn't for my charm and good looks. My thoughts went back to what Viola had been telling me during our duel together. There wasn't much I remembered from that duel aside from the pain and the tears, but something wouldn't leave me no matter what.

" _You still don't understand, do you?"_

" _Understand what?"_

" _Why I'm even after you?"_

Was Bakura after me for the exact same reason? Were they in league with each other? Was he going to send me right to those weird cloaked people?

" _You aren't supposed to exist. You're a part of something bigger than yourself -something dangerous. You were brought here for a very specific purpose, and whether your existence on its own harms this world or not, it is one of several gears in a large device ticking down to doomsday. It is up to me and the rest of the Guardians to take apart that device, piece by piece."_

They called themselves the "Guardians", but "Guardians" of what? They wanted to see me destroyed -that much was obvious -so they couldn't possibly have _my_ best interests at heart. What scared me was the fact that they were obviously much stronger than I was, which meant that the fact that I had survived that Shadow Duel was pure luck…

Speaking of which, how _did_ I survive that duel? Was it even possible that I might have _won_ the duel?

 _Kristya's_ blast played vividly in my mind. The blinding light, the stinging, burning sensation, my deafening scream. That attack was a direct attack. It definitely must have wiped out a great chunk of my life points. The demons _chomp chomp chomp_ sounded as clear as ever in my memories, making every single one of my blisters scream in agony. I winced and was only brought back to reality by the stiffening of the arm I had been clinging to.

"Careful," he grunted. "I've got a stab wound under there."

I slowly moved my gaze to Bakura's arm, realizing I had been digging my nails into his bandages, dangerously close to pushing on his wound. It must have hurt him. I wasn't even sure if I was very sorry about that. I remembered that he inflicted that wound upon himself, but I also needed to keep in mind that there was an innocent boy under there somewhere, _Ryou Bakura._

I decided that for his sake, I'd choke out a small apology. "S-Sorry, I'm just -"

"I don't care," he interrupted, scowling in the direction of a couple of teenagers who were sitting at a bench laughing.

I felt his words go right through my chest. It wasn't like I cared about his stupid words, but his utter nonchalance towards me made me feel like dead weight. I hated him and his stupid face.

I bit my lip and glanced away from Bakura, my mind recalling the duel with Viola again. Right now, I didn't know whether I won that duel or not, and trying to remember wasn't doing me any good because my mind went blank at a certain point after Joey and Téa found me. However, I could certainly remember one way to know whether or not I won… It was something Viola had told me…

" _Should you win this duel, I'd give you this fragment."_

She had been holding something very small and clear, like a crystal, when she said that. The fragment. If I won that duel, then she must have given it to me even though I didn't remember ever taking it from her. And if I did take the fragment, then that fragment and my things would be in my bag. I may not have recalled putting them in there, but they must have been in there.

Right now, my bag was slung over Bakura's slender shoulder. He had been holding it the whole time, and I hadn't bothered asking for it back, because I knew that if I tried to hold it, it could rub against my torso, which was covered in painful blisters. The only parts of my body that were still unharmed were my neck, head, and arms. However, if that bag held the answers to what happened to me over the past few hours, then I needed to look inside of it.

"Bakura…" I called out timidly. I was such a fucking wimp. Oh, gosh… How was I even supposed to survive in this place?

I saw him tilt his head to the side slightly, not even bothering to look at me, but I knew that he had heard me because he let out a noncommittal "Hm" It was vague and hardly satisfying, but at least he was listening. I half expected him to ignore me.

"Could I take a look at my bag for a second?" I asked him, trying not to sound like a shy grade-schooler making a class presentation.

He shrugged lightly and looked at me. "Are you sure you can carry it?"

"Yes, I can…" I thought about the blisters on my back and grimaced. "Well, not for a while, but… umm…" I looked around the park, my eyes searching for an empty bench. "We could… I don't know… maybe… sit down? Somewhere? I-If that's okay with you?" I was doing such a good job of trying to sound confident -don't you think? Man, Lorna. Next step? Running for presidency. Yup, totally. _Someone put me in the garbage bin where I so clearly belong._

I heard a long and drawn out sigh coming from Asswipe McGee himself. I wondered if he majored in fuckface-ism in 3000 year old Egyptian university… "You know we have no time for that. I need two more locator cards to qualify for the Battle City Finals, and with the way you're dragging your feet, I'd rather get those cards sooner rather than later. You can look at your wretched bag while I'm dueling."

I expected him to say something like that…

Wait a sec… Battle City Finals? That reminded me that I, myself, was once competing. I had _at least_ two locator cards. If I could just find them somewhere in my bag, I could give them to him and we could get this over with. The sooner I could be reunited with my friends, the better. I had already given up any hope of making it to the Finals myself, but if there was anything I could do to make sure we didn't miss the blimp, I would do it, even if it meant helping out this professional asshole.

"You know… I was competing in the Battle City tournament, too… so I -"

And never straying too far from his true nature as a complete piece of horse shit, he decided to interrupt me again. "Yes, I know. I've decided to borrow your duel disk."

… That piece of shit did _what_?

Before I could truly respond to his heinous act of disrespect and treachery, he spoke again. "Don't worry. I didn't throw your deck away. It's still in your bag… You really should get a deck box, though…They're very useful." He smirked at me, evidently feeling very happy with himself.

"I -" My voice got caught in my throat. My brain was still trying to register the fact that he was using my duel disk and my locator cards, and it was so busy doing so, that it hadn't even realized that my cards were haphazardly strewn across the bottom of my bag, possibly bent and damaged. "O-Okay." And all I fucking said was "Okay" I was beginning to wonder who was the bigger piece of trash -me or him?

Wait…

Wait, wait, _wait._

"Bakura, did you just say I have four locator cards?" I asked, craning my neck to look at him. He wasn't as tall (or as nice) as Joey, but standing right next to me, he was kinda hard to look in the face. W-Which was for the best, obviously! Because who wants to look at his stupid poopy face anyway?

At the moment, the two of us were slowly exiting the park, and I was beginning to wonder where exactly we were going. I just wished I could remember… How did Bakura even get the rest of his locator cards so quickly? There were hardly any duelists around. In fact, as we were walking, I didn't see a single duel in progress. Every single duelist had either given up or been struck out by a stronger duelist.

Bakura dragged me through the entrance of the park and onto the sidewalk outside. As we stood at the side of the road, waiting for an opening to cross the street, he decided to reply. "Yes, you do. In fact, I'm surprised an amateur like you even managed to get that far."

 _Hey!_ I _didn't_ exclaim because I'm a chicken who is too afraid to stand up for herself.

The insult aside though, how _had_ I managed to get four locator cards? The first one was the card that came with the duel disk, and the second was definitely the one I got by defeating Rex, but I didn't remember getting two other cards -unless they came from Viola. I felt my heart flutter in my chest as I remembered the demons from the Shadow Duel. They hurt me so much, and every time I thought about them, my skin throbbed and begged me to cast the thought away. An image flashed in my mind just then.

Everything in my duel with Viola I could remember with such vivid clarity up until Joey and Téa came to cheer me on. The image that came to mind was different. It was vague and felt like a long lost dream flashing in my mind then disappearing. I wasn't even sure of what it was, but something about it stuck out in my mind's eye. It was Viola covered in red. I wasn't even sure if I had red vision or if she truly was covered in red, but the color red was something that really stuck out, and it was a color that didn't exactly have a great track record where my hallucinations were concerned.

My thoughts were interrupted by Bakura, who was now ushering me to the other side of the street before any cars came. My legs hurt like hell, but I didn't exactly want to get run over, so I tried as hard as I could to keep up with the pace he had set for the both of us. And in less than a minute, we were both at the other side. One of us panting heavily due to exertion, and the other not really giving a shit. I bet you can guess which person was doing what.

In front of us was a large gate and above that gate was an elegant wooden sign. "A cemetery?" I asked, as I laid my eyes on the sign, glancing into it uneasily. I wasn't really a big fan of cemeteries or horror movies or anything creepy for that matter.

"Yes, will that be a problem?" he replied. I could hear the smirk in his voice. That smug, slimy little nazi butt was enjoying my unease, and I hated him so much.

"But there are like… dead people… in there." I complained, my voice rising a couple of octaves at the end of the sentence, making it sound almost like a question.

"Yes, we'll fit _right in_ then, won't we, Lorna?" he replied letting out a small, sinister chuckle.

I scowled and pursed my lips, holding back an insult. That was pretty low. It felt kinda wrong to call Bakura names anyway, when really, it was the nameless Spirit of the Ring that I should have been badmouthing. "Say, Spirit of the Ring… what's your _real_ name?"

"Why do you ask?" He looked down at me, taken aback at the sudden question. It seems like nobody had ever bothered to ask him that. I mean, watching the anime, I only really knew him as Yami Bakura or the Spirit of the Ring.

"Just… humor me," I replied, looking at the ground and beginning to regret my decision to ask him.

I thought he would simply ignore me and drag me into the graveyard for whatever reason he wanted us in there, but I was…. surprised to see him respond to my question rather naturally. "It's Zorc."

I nodded silently and committed the name to my memory. "You're a dick, Zorc."

He surprised me again by letting out a loud laugh. It sounded maniacal coming from someone like him, and I felt my blood boil that my insult wasn't being taken as seriously as I had intended. All this buildup for my amazing comeback to all his abuse and he laughs at me.

"I mean it!" I insisted, finally feeling my awkwardness stepping aside. "You're a _huge_ dick!"

The laughter simply got louder from here. I could feel the arm I was holding on to shaking. He turned his head to look at me, a huge, toothy grin on his face. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was just an innocent teenage boy. He quieted his laughter enough for him to speak. "I didn't know you thought of me _that_ way, Lorna. Well, I'll admit you're right in a _sense_."

"Huh?" I gave him a questioning look. I didn't say anything funny.

Wait...

… _THAT DIRTY-MINDED ASS-TRUMPET!_

"T-T-That's not what I meant!" I exclaimed, quickly trying to regain my lost honor. "You're the absolute worst!"

Stupid _, STUPID ZORC_.

"No need to deny it, Lorna," he told me with a leer which I wanted to smack right off of his stupid, creepy face. "We have no time for pleasantries, though. I have some locator cards to win."

"So what are we going to do in a graveyard?" I inquired, feeling a soft but chilly breeze come at us from inside the graveyard.

He gave me a look that took my reputation and the reputation of my entire lineage and flushed it down the toilet. "We're going to duel obviously."

 _Obviously._ Because that's what you usually do in graveyards.

"But what kind of duelist is going to hang out in a graveyard? Especially at a time like this!"

As Zorc walked me through the ominous cemetery, I couldn't help but gaze around at the gravestones scattered all about. In the day, this place probably looked like a beautiful and peaceful resting ground for the dead, but right then, it was cold and dark. The two of us were surrounded by fog, and I felt like a monster could pop up at us at any second. We were so vulnerable… I mean, I was sure that alone, Zorc could hold his own, but I was a liability…

A gruff voice cut into my spiral into fear. "Not a duelist in sight…"

I looked over at Bakura's face; Zorc had put it in such a deep frown. "What made you think there would be duelists here to begin with? I think we should just leave…" I weakly tugged at his jacket, urging him to leave.

Before he could respond to me, I heard an eerie moaning. It startled me, sending my heart into my throat all at once. I could hardly breathe, the oxygen entering my lungs in short, quick bursts which did more harm than good.

"UWAAGH! BEWARE!"

B-Beware?

Just then, three shadowy figures began to approach the two of us. I clenched my fingers around the sleeve of Bakura's jacket, shrinking into him to increase the distance between the figures and myself.

"Are you _serious_?" Zorc murmured under his breath.

Before I could say a word, he was throwing me at the ground, causing a frightened yelp to emerge from my lips and a pained scream at the friction between my legs and the ground. Why did he _do_ that? Shaken, I curled up into a ball and cradled my sore limbs. He was going to get what was coming to him as soon as I got back together with Yugi and my friends. In fact, wasn't he going to be defeated early on in the Battle City Finals? Man, was I going to enjoy that. I was going to sit right at the front just so I could be the first to laugh at him when I watched him lose.

I watched as one of the three leaped at Zorc, who dodged the assailant with ease, simultaneously taking off his mask and pinning his arm to his back. I would say that I was impressed that Zorc had such good reflexes and could do so well against a guy twice his size, but that would imply I felt something other than hatred for him.

Zorc looked down at the ground a little ways away from where he had pushed me and I followed his gaze to a duel disk which had been carelessly tossed to the ground -much like myself. I guess you could say that I now felt a spiritual connection to that discarded duel disk. Someday, we would have our revenge. _Soon._

"So you _are_ duelists," he remarked, still looking down at the duel disk. I was glaring straight into his eyes, waiting for him to meet my gaze so that he would feel guilty for throwing me and possibly apologize, but when he returned his gaze to his assailant's two companions, his eyes skipped right over me. Stupid knob goblin. "If this is how you intimidate the competition, you're even more hopeless than you look." He then shoved the large man forward into his companions. "You're not match for my strength, so we'll do things _my_ way."

Out of three, one pair of eyes looked away from Zorc and down at me. The owner of those eyes slowly removed the mask from his head, revealing his face. He was a tall, thin boy in a form-fitting shirt, wearing sunglasses which must have made it difficult for him to see, considering how dark the cemetery was (never mind how he was even able to fit those glasses under his mask). I could barely see anything here _without_ sunglasses, so I couldn't even imagine the world of darkness that guy was in. However he was able to see, he was looking straight at me. With a confused tilt of his head, he whispered something into his shorter friend's ear.

Not paying any mind to this exchange, Zorc prattled on, like the gigantic fucking tool that he was. "I possess 4 locator cards, and if you'd like to have them, you'll have to duel me for them."

The short stranger in the middle, who seemed to be their leader, thrust his finger out at us, saying, "Fine. We have _five_ locator cards. We'll only need one of yours to make it to the Battle City Finals, but if you insist on giving them all to us, then I, personally, don't mind."

The three of them began to talk among themselves again. This time, all three of them shot curious looks at my crumpled form. It wasn't like I could stand up again. I needed Zorc's support to get on my feet the first time, and this time, it seemed like he was content to leave me in the state that I was in, which meant that, until Zorc won this duel, I would be fair game to any and all bugs on the ground.

"If we're going to duel then take off your mask and show me your face," my companion ordered, a malicious smile playing at his lips.

The short one chuckled and began to peel off the wrinkled mask on his face. I didn't expect him to be ugly _under_ the mask, too, however. "I'm afraid you don't stand a _ghost_ of a chance in a duel against me!" he taunted. _Ghost of a chance?_ Ugh, who came up with that stupid line. Judging by the way Zorc's face tensed, he didn't seem to enjoy that sorry excuse for a pun either. "So put up your locator cards and let's _do_ this!"

"If you're so confident, why not raise the stakes?" the white haired boy challenged. "The winner takes all!"

The three of them gasped, clearly not liking the idea of risking everything. So much for not standing a _Ghost of a chance_ …

"Not likely," the tall one said.

"You think we're dumb enough to risk all five cards?" the largest one asked, dismissing the idea with a wave of his hand.

Zorc grinned like a cat playing with a mouse. "Your cowardice comes as no surprise, but let me remind you: the finals begin soon and you're running out of time."

 _He was right._ There was no way anyone would be able to get all six locator cards. My knowledge of the series also told me that there was no way they would be able to make it to the finals even if they were to give us the bare minimum of locator cards to qualify Zorc for the finals.

"Lorna."

I had been so caught up in watching the scene play out before me, that I had almost forgotten that I was a part of that scene. It felt surreal, watching this. It's funny that in the time that I had been here, this was the first scene that I recognized from when I watched the show a few years ago. And out of all the scenes, why did _this_ have to be the first?

I looked up at Zorc, failing to glare at him as I had originally planned. "What?"

"Your bag," he said, dropping the olive green bag a few inches away from me. Immediately, he returned his attention to his opponent.

I couldn't be bothered to watch the rest of the scene play out, though. My hands swiftly pulled the bag towards my legs, deciding to search through it while it was on the ground rather than try to put it in my lap. I hurriedly undid the zipper and shoved my arm inside, thanking the heavens that my arms didn't have blisters on them or this would have been infinitely more difficult and painful for me.

Just as I had suspected, my cards were unceremoniously scattered all around the bag. It was going to be a bitch to try and put them all back together in a neat pile, but that was the least of my worries at the moment. I needed to know what happened at the end of the duel with Viola.

My shoulders shuddered as a chilly and familiar atmosphere surrounded me. _No, no, no_ , _Zorc._ The fog had gotten very thick all around the five of us, and the unease in the hearts of myself and the trio who was unfortunate enough to stumble upon Zorc was almost a physical force that surrounded us and created thick layers around our hearts. _A Shadow Game._

" _ **Get out of the way"**_

_"No, I won't."_

I felt my fingers brush against something smooth with sharp corners, like a stone. This must have been it. _The Fragment…_

This was the answer.

I slowly wrapped my hand around it, feeling a strange warmth fill my hand. Carefully, I began to extract my arm from the bag, and when my hand was in the open air again, opened it over my lap.

This was it. It was the very same crystal that Viola had shown me. The fact that this crystal was now in my hand meant that Viola was dead -and that I was the one who killed her.


	22. An Aperture of the Mind

"Stop your whimpering," he snarled at the fallen duelists grovelling on the ground before him. I suppose I was no different, kneeling beside Zorc's feet, clutching the burning hot crystal fragment in my hand and ignoring the heat, wondering if perhaps the pain was supposed to send me some sort of message. "Nothing can save you now. It's over."

The three let out a collective gasp, their shivering increasing in frequency, their pale hands grabbing clumsily at each other as though their friendship could save them from Zorc's fickle whim. The one in the middle, Bonz, lowered his head, breaking eye contact with his abuser and closing his eyes. Was he praying? Or did he simply not want to look at what was coming? Did the three of them somehow, somewhere deep in their hearts, know how much power the being before them possessed? Did they know that they were about to die?

A bell tolled in the distance -a churchbell probably… No, an _execution bell_ , signalling irrefutably their ultimate demise. And there the executioner stood, playing with the victims of his folly and malignity.

"You've dueled me and lost. And now, I'm going to send you all to _hell._ "

There was no mistaking the seriousness in his tone, and the three sobbing, cowering duelists were now screaming and begging. I felt a pull in my arms and legs to go help them, but I knew I couldn't stop him even if I tried.

"Z-Zorc, maybe you shouldn't -"

His head turned towards me suddenly, and I felt warm and cold all at the same time, like a violent fever had taken over my entire body. In that glower, I could see a being who was beyond human, beyond mortal -something celestial, powerful, dangerous.

"Maybe I shouldn't _what_?"

_What happened to the good ol' Shadow Realm? We aren't sending people there anymore?_

And I knew he wasn't counting on an answer from me, so I simply shoved the warm fragment between my crossed legs to warm them, feeling feeble and weak, unable to do a thing but watch on as those poor duelists lost their lives, but it was of some consolation to see the tall redhead's eyes meet my own; they were terrified, but also understanding, like he realized I was nothing but a prisoner. Still, I was the one who got to live in the end, so shouldn't that have made me detestable?

There was a muffled shuffling sound -the sound of dirt moving and settling and then slowly something began to dig its way out of the earth… No, not _something_ , for it was more than one thing. Countless hands began to come out of the ground, and in the gaggle, I almost saw something like a face. Then it was more than a face, a whole head, dozens of them, crowded around those boys like lions to their prey.

And all around, the bell tolled and Zorc cackled a little less like a boy at a carnival and a little more like a man who should be institutionalized for his own safety and the safety of everyone around him. I couldn't imagine anyone enjoying a sight like that...

_**Chomp, chomp, chomp…** _

It was the same sound as before… Unable to move, or speak, or react, I didn't notice one of them stray and approach me, and it was likely Zorc hadn't noticed it either, as I doubted he wanted to kill me -at least not right then.

The groan of the dark creature was too close for comfort when it brought me back to my own body and my own mind. I felt my legs ache as I edged towards Zorc, one hand holding onto the fragment while dragging my backpack behind me -like I would actually need it if I got caught by that thing -and my free hand reaching desperately for the denim of Zorc's pants.

"Zorc!" I wailed, feeling my eyes begin to blur as I blindly edged towards him, still trying to reach for his legs.

Before I knew what was happening, a pair of arms had grabbed me from behind and I let out the loudest scream my lungs would permit. Panting heavily, I tried to get my vision in focus as a voice mumbled into my ear. "Lorna, calm down and try to stay behind me." It was Zorc's voice, but why couldn't he simply call off those things? Didn't he call them out?

I could vaguely see my surroundings now. My backpack was hanging in the crook of my elbow and I was somehow on my feet with Zorc's back to me. I shakily put the fragment in my bag and gripped the back of his shirt with both of my hands, feeling my eyes fill up with tears again. "Make them go away, Zorc. It's enough, please…"

"Y-Yes…" I heard him mutter with a hint of irritation in his tone, but oddly enough, it wasn't directed towards myself.

I didn't want to look, but I could tell that those who couldn't get a taste of the boys were switching targets -to Zorc and me, namely. Now, Zorc would probably be fine, considering it wasn't his body and he could simply have the Ring find a new host, but I was pretty sure Ryou and I would be deader than dead if those things got a hold of us.

"What's wrong?" I asked, hoping the answer wouldn't be what I suspected.

"N-Nothing! They're supposed to leave as soon as they have devoured those fools, but…" He didn't bother to continue his sentence; instead, he simply turned around, untangling my hands from his shirt and scooped me into his arms. "It seems they're taking their sweet time and some have gotten bored. It's best we leave now." He began rushing out of the graveyard.

Feeling imbalanced, I heaved the bag onto my chest so it wouldn't dangle at the side. "W-Well, did you get your stupid locator cards?" I snapped at him, trying to sound indignant, but only managing to sound breathless and tired.

Something about this whole scenario just made me feel like this wasn't supposed to happen at all in the show…

"Of course, I did!" he replied, sounding more annoyed with me for insinuating something so stupid. "And this is where you get off," he added once we were out of the graveyard.

I braced myself as he let me down on my feet surprisingly gently for someone who just unleashed the nightmarish terrors of hell upon three unsuspecting and undeserving people.

"Thanks," I mumbled dryly, gripping my backpack and covering my cold forearms. I wondered what we were going to do next… Something else traumatizing and horrific? Like maybe, kidnap some duelists, trap them in an abandoned warehouse and force them to mutilate themselves to escape? ' _I wanna play a game,'_ he'd say… Aw, hell, why the living fuck was I joking about this?

"Can you walk?" he asked in a businesslike tone, extending his arm slightly for me to latch onto in the same fashion as our previous arrangement. I was going to say something pissy, but decided to simply let out a defeated sigh and accept his offer.

The walk was quiet, and I couldn't bring myself to do anything to break it. I wasn't exactly feeling up to listening to that raspy, evil voice, so I reached into my backpack and felt for my fragment, deciding to analyze it again.

It was irregularly shaped, but if it were a sphere, it would be barely a half an inch in circumference. So what was this supposed to do for me again? Show me the truth?

"What's that?" Zorc piped up. It was clear that even millennia old all-powerful beings were as easily distracted by shinys as normal mortal people.

I closed my hand around the fragment protectively, because I wasn't about to let Murder McMurder-Face over here get his sweaty palms on it. What if it was as powerful as the Millennium Items? Something inside me wondered 'What if _I_ was as powerful as the Millennium Items?' … but that was crazy-talk. There was no way…

"It's um… a fragment?" I replied uncertainly.

"And what would the finished item be?" he asked impatiently. Why was he so insistent? Could he sense its power or something?

"A-Ah… I don't know… A-A crystal?" I sputtered, holding it close to my chest. "I don't know what it _does_."

"Then why leave it with _you_?" he murmured, but when the two of us were in such close quarters, it would have been impossible for me not to have heard him.

I frowned slightly. "I won it… in a Shadow Duel…"

At that, I heard a loud bark of laughter. " _You_ won a Shadow Duel? Do you expect me to believe that?" He let out a few more laugh before getting breathless and giving me a toothy grin. "Say I believe you, alright? Why were you trusted with something like that?"

I scowled and countered with a question of my own. "Why are you so set on making me out to be some sort of incompetent good-for-nothing? I won that duel fair and square."

_Even though I can't remember winning it at all… but I must have, right?_

"Well, well, well… _Now,_ I'm impressed," he remarked sarcastically.

"Shut up," I mumbled. "How do you even know where we're going?

He chuckled at my indignance. "I have an acquaintance who was kind enough to disclose the location of the Finals. The only reason I need these locator cards is to qualify as a finalist."

" _Lorna!"_

My eyes burned as I saw _her_ standing far away, blurred by red and yellow lights.

"Did you say something, Zorc?" I whispered, holding the back of my hand to my forehead, feeling a headache pulsing and racing angrily under my skin.

"I was just telling you about…" he trailed off, giving me an unreadable expression. It looked like the sort of expression you'd give a broken car -when you feel like it needs to be fixed, but you can't be bothered to get it to the mechanic. He let out a huff and decided to ask, "Are you alright?"

"My head just hurts a little bit…" I groaned feeling the hand on my forehead shake and the one digging into Zorc's arm weaken. The pain was unbearable, blood pumping through the veins branching beneath the skin of my temples and behind my eyes at an unnatural rate. It was just pushing out more and more, like it was trying to get out of my head, like something in there was furious. It extended to my throat and gut, too, as if it wasn't enough that my head hurt; my stomach acid was bubbling like a volcano ready to erupt.

I felt the arm that had only been hanging lazily for support unhinge itself from my arm and wrap around the center of my back. "You look like you're about to collapse," he groaned bitterly. Well, thank you for implying ( _again_ ) that I was burden to you just in case I had forgotten.

And the red and yellow lights danced around me, sending me into a whirlwind, with no earthly tether but that bright blue in the middle…

" _ **Get out of my way, Téa. You'll get hurt."**_

"It's the fragment, Lorna!"

Oh, gosh… "I think I'm going to vomit…" I felt my knees buckle, but the arms holding me up were too rough… too solid to let me fall.

The blue was now so bright, it was almost white and blinding me, trying to push me away…

" _No, I won't."_

"Stop holding it. It's doing this to you!"

_**Lorna, let go of the fragment-** _

" **Saturn** _ **, attack."**_

" _Téa!"_

I winced, my hand clenching unconsciously around his forearm, my eyes shut as though magnetized, and my head cowering in an unwilling shoulder. "No, no, no, no…"

The lights were gone now, and all that remained was a blurry sort of reality, covered in black fog, or were all the lights around me just dimming?

_I didn't. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I really didn't do it._

_I'm not bad. I'm good. I didn't do it._

_Please tell me I didn't do it._

_**Lorna, those are lies…** _

_That's it. They're all just lies…_

_**Trust me. Remember: you trust me.** _

_I trust you… I can trust you..._

"P-Put me down, Zorc. I need to vomit… I can't…" I muttered breathlessly to him. "I have…" I felt my chest tighten and my legs wobble, simply refusing to give me solidarity at this time. My stomach lurched just as Zorc let my body fall from his grasp.

My hands shook and relinquished their grip on the boy, simply slipping down and following the rest of my body down to the ground. I didn't even care about the friction between the ground and my legs. I was numb to the rocks rubbing against my calves and thighs. There was a sting at impact, and when I started crying, I couldn't be certain if the tears came before or after I hit the ground.

With a cough, I doubled over, heaving up whatever my stomach allowed; there wasn't much in it anyway. I kept coughing, forcing whatever was in me to get out, feeling chunks and bile rush through my throat and onto the ground in a puddle. Spit and vomit covered my mouth and I let a trembling hand rummage through my bag for a tissue.

"L-Lorna -" He gasped in surprise. I guess he didn't expect me to "pull a Lorna" and start crying for no reason. Maybe the combination of crying with barf kinda came out of left field for him.

"I'm sorry," I whimpered. "I'll get up. I will…" I held my hand to my head again, shutting my eyes and listening to my own pulse. It was so loud and it kept banging against my skull violently.

My vision blurred suddenly, and when it returned, they were there again. The dark tendrils… the ones from my nightmare. I could see them everywhere. They were trying to get inside of me. I couldn't let them. I absolutely couldn't let them. I looked up pathetically at Zorc, who was struggling to figure out what had come over me.

* * *

It was sometime later when I regained my conscious mind…

I didn't know where I was. I didn't know how I had gotten there. I didn't know what was happening to us. All I knew was that I was alone in the battered toolshed of an abandoned mansion, huddled over the unconscious body of Ryou Bakura. I knew it was Ryou; it was him without a doubt. I could tell by the soft brown eyes beneath those closed lids which had shown me nothing but kindness and understanding. I would have been lost without them…

_I don't know how I know that…_

The old shed smelled like garbage, dirt, and rot, a stench that beat its way into my nostrils like rabid beasts, clawing through my resistance. Whether I inhaled it through my mouth or nose, it made no difference; the taste was rancid just the same, and the small wooden building was the worse for wear. Almost _anything_ could get in, and almost anything _was trying_ with great dedication -a deadly commitment to seeing myself and my companion dead. I looked down at him, my eyes darting quickly to the door every couple of moments, as though my gaze alone was keeping the rickety wood from breaking down and letting _them_ in.

_Please wake up. Please, please wake up. I can't do this alone. I'm so scared._

The swarm was getting closer, banging on doors, rapping on windows. They begged for entrance and the fragile skeleton of the building we were in wasn't doing much to deny them that primal and savage need. The building rattled and moaned, echoing every tiny noise around it. Although this place must have been quite sturdy once, it was anything but that at the moment, and every second spent there was playing my anxiety like a grand piano.

I wasn't brave. I've never been brave and I've known it from the very beginning. I was a coward through and through. I didn't fit in with Yugi's friends. They were all so brave and kind.

_"I can't die now…_

_I'm not…_

_ready…"_

To save myself,

_"You... you haven't learned a thing from this, abomination, have you?_

_I may die here, but your fate is sealed."_

" _ **Shut up and die, Viola."**_

I killed Viola.

" _ **Get out of my way."**_

" _No, I won't."_

" **Saturn** _ **, attack."**_

" _Téa!"_

I killed Téa.

I was going to get Ryou killed, too.

I couldn't protect him even if I wanted to. Why have faith in someone like me? Why trust someone like me? And it was all my fault. These were conscious choices that I made because deep down,

_I'm just an abomination._

_**THUD THUD THUD** _

My eyes glanced around at the walls of the shed. It was quite large and much sturdier than your average garden shed, but whoever owned this place must have emptied it completely. There were no tools -no weapons -nothing to fight off the threat just outside, clawing at the walls and groaning. Each thud was like a thousand volts to my heart; I couldn't take the velocity of my heartbeat, the speed of the muscle as it erratically bumped into my ribcage. I almost expected it to burst and kill me right there and then.

"You know what I like to call this place?"

I turned my gaze carefully in the direction of the voice's owner, expecting a man, but finding what looked like a large doll instead -larger than even me. He looked completely out of place in the setting, his clothes were gaudy to say the least, from his striped bouffant pants to the giant violet feather in his big prissy hat. The most notable feature, however, was his face, a wooden mask of complacence -quite literally -almost like an eternal smirk.

Noting that my tongue had had failed me, he decided to continue speaking. "The Aperture of Reflection."

"A-Aperture?"

His voice was by all accounts jovial as he spoke to me, like a salesman trying to trick me into buying a faulty vacuum. "Yes, because it's a gap, a void, the absence of something, and what is that something?" he paused as though waiting for me to answer, but my mouth simply opened and closed pathetically with a lack of a proper response. "Finality. _They_ like to call it the Inbetween, but really, this place is Infinity, the paradox between life and death, because what are you if you're not alive? And what are you if you're not dead? You think it's a trick question, but it's not too hard. You're proof of its existence. You and all of the chosen ones are Infinity."

"Infinity?" I asked, feeling stupid for simply repeating his words, but his words weren't making any kind of sense that I could follow.

"Ayep, and 'Reflection' because this is also where all your sins are judged."

 _My sins…_ It wounded me so deeply that when he spoke those words, five faces came vividly to mind (three more than I had expected), that I wanted to claw my heart out of my chest and use the organ as a stress ball.

Who was this strange clown person? And why was he suddenly telling me all of these things? I didn't understand anything. It sounded like something important, but I had other things to be worried about, namely the groaning and the banging which had gotten so loud that the strange being was almost shouting at me to be heard.

"Sounds like you've got a bit of trouble, eh?" he said, and I could almost see the smirk on that wooden mask grow exponentially. His long metallic finger pointed to a space behind me.

My neck twisted painfully as I tried to get a look at where he was pointing and finding that it was much worse that I had originally thought. Not only was the door slightly open, but _they_ were filtering in slowly, still trying to figure out how to make the gap of the open shed door even wider. "I-I…" I gasped, feeling the air leave my lungs and my brain, feeling my consciousness begin to fade. "We closed that. I swear we -"

"Oops. I must have forgotten to shut it behind me on my way in," the man replied with no clear remorse in his tone. "Oh, well. We _all_ make mistakes." Those words held something dark in them and he tossed those thinly veiled intentions in my general direction.

"Not like this!" I shrieked at him, turning my head towards him to glare and scold him, but he was no longer there. "Where did you _go?_ " I called out after him, unable to get to my feet, lest I leave the paralyzed boy on the ground before me, and struggling to hold onto my mind. If I was doomed, I didn't want to be awake, but there was even an iota of a chance, I didn't want to be asleep.

Of course, there was no time to shout at a ghost when he wasn't there anymore, as there was no one there to hear my screams but the creatures anxiously making their way clumsily through the benches and shelves I had overturned and placed in their path. My voice would only serve to excite and motivate them. Soon, they would surround us, and it was all my fault -always my fault.

Like a taunt, I heard that same voice again coming from right behind me. "Let me give you a hint... Lumen." Before I could say anything or do anything, something was on my head, covering my eyes, like claws, and out of nowhere, a warmth surged through my body, followed by severe heat. My vision swayed and blurred, and out through my lips, black smoke shot out like a hose, spreading out all around me as though it had a mind of its own. And then black was all I could see...

* * *

_**Beep…** _

_**Beep…** _

_**Beep…** _

_What in the fuck is that infernal beeping noise?_

I let out a small groan and took in long breath through my nose, inhaling a familiar scent that I, in my grogginess, couldn't quite place, but familiar was good… always good. My legs were still not one hundred percent, but somehow, they felt lighter to me.

" _Oh_ , you're awake."

 _Zorc_.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fucking _shit_ fuck. Why did it have to be _him_?

"Yes, I am," I murmured, suddenly feeling less enthusiastic to open my eyes. "Where are we?"

"We're in a medical center on a blimp owned by KaibaCorp."

I opened one eye for a peek at my _dear_ companion, who, bless his rotten soul (and the jury is still out on the soul thing), was looking just as grumpy as usual, if not grumpier, sitting on one of the hospital beds with his arms crossed over his chest. "Blimp? We're on the blimp?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Yes."

"And when you say ' _We_ '..."

He shut his eyes in irritation and I smirked because I knew I hit the jackpot. "I'm here as a patient as well…"

"Good." I felt content with myself, if not a bit drowsy and disoriented from whatever I had just dreamt about. " _Hmm…_ " I shut my eyes and thought about what my friends were doing and almost jumped out of my bed. "Holy shit! They're dueling, aren't they?"

"Calm down before you have another aneurysm," Zorc growled, clearly not pleased with that fact.

_Wait._

_Oh, no…_

_Oh, yes! This is delicious._

"You lost, didn't you, Zorc. First duel, as a matter of fact. Am I right?" I asked, reciting what I knew to be true. For once, my knowledge was coming in handy, even if it was for something as mediocre as annoying this fuckboy. I sat up in my seat, facing him, and leaned in close with a giant, goofy grin on my face and my eyes as wide as a bambi.

He scoffed and laid back in his bed, turning his face to the wall rather than to myself. "Shut up and go back to sleep."

I leaned back into my own bed and looked up at the ceiling as a certain realization dawned on me. My friends were here…on this blimp. Joey, Tristan and Yugi were here, but was Téa?


	23. Delirium and Stars

So, my immediate reaction to being on the blimp obviously should have been to get up and look for my friends because being around Bakura wasn't going to help me much. I remembered that the idea of searching for him had crossed my mind before Zephyr had found me, but that was only to try and confront Marik before all hell broke loose, which meant that, seeing as the semi-finals had begun, I had lost my chance to do that. However, without my interference, the story would still go on as planned -I hoped - and Yugi and the Pharaoh wouldn't need my help to beat Marik. Besides, even if I had found Marik first, I wasn't quite sure what I would have done, so it was probably for the best…

_**Yeah, I was wondering where you were going with that plan anyway.** _

_Go away, Voice._

_**Rude. I saved your life.** _

_Yeah, thanks for that, but I don't need you reading my mind all the time. Would it kill you to at least_ pretend _that you're respecting my privacy?_

I sighed. You know what? I was going to get out of bed and I was going to find my friends and I was going to cheer them on. I couldn't be laying around while all the interesting stuff was happening elsewhere. I missed Yugi's duel, so I had to at least stick around for Joey's duel before _evil_ Marik turned into an _even-more-evil_ Marik.

_**You missed** _ **that** _**one too, y'know.** _

_Didn't I tell you to stop that?_ I huffed quietly then asked him, _Then who's dueling?_

_**Well, at the moment? Nobody.** _

I thought back to Joey's duel with Odion… If I recalled correctly, he was supposed to be overwhelmed by the duel and fall unconscious. He should have been in the infirmary somewhere… Maybe I just hadn't spotted him yet.

I heaved myself up into a sitting position and scanned the room. It was pretty small with three beds on each side -six in total. Only two of the beds were occupied at the moment -mine and Bakura's. There was a nurse taking a nap on one of the visitors' couches, his chest heaving upwards and downwards. But no Joey... Just how late was it? Surely, my friends were still awake, right? There were still duels to be had before the night was through. I mean, I only missed half of it, right?

I waited for the voice to affirm or deny, but it was silent, which I took for approval.

With a sigh so great it could have effectively changed the course of the enormous KaibaCorp blimp, I tried lifting my legs over the edge of the bed. It didn't hurt as much as before, but I knew from experience that the pain was only dull since I had been off of my feet for a while. Though my ass was kinda stinging more now that my weight was on it. Thinking about the blisters, I began to wonder if I had enough warts now to officially be considered a wicked witch; then at least I'd have gained something from that accursed duel.

In one quick leap, I dropped to the ground, wincing and inhaling sharply as soon as my feet met the ground. Well, that didn't hurt like as much of a bitch as it could have, but it was still bad. At some point while I was asleep, the medical staff must have covered up my blisters as they were all bandaged up now.

I looked over at the nurse again; he was still sleeping, which was good since I didn't want to be told how much I needed to rest. I had a severe, pulsing migraine and I was sure anyone with half a brain would have noticed me grimacing every time I moved my head.

A sharp sting in my arm caused me to stop in my tracks. It was the IV and I had enough common sense to know that I couldn't just rip it out, so I got to work picking off the tape on my arm where the IV was attached.

"I wouldn't do that," Zorc drawled, not even bothering to face me as he spoke.

"What do you mean? Why not?" I sputtered, my hand still in position to remove the IV needle from my arm.

With a colossal release of breath, indicating that there were millions of people he would rather have been with than my humble self, he mumbled, "When you were brought in here, you were severely dehydrated and malnourished. Apparently, you haven't eaten anything since yesterday. You did your fair share of vomiting today as well, so I wasn't particularly surprised. I'd lie back down if I were you..." He yawned and shifted in his bed. "Though I don't really care either way..." Ah, good of him to make sure I still knew he was a dickpimple before I forgot.

"But I'm not hungry..." I said, fingering my belly. Aside from the slightly aching sores all over my skin and my headache, I felt fine, which meant that that the IV had already done its job.

After removing it, I made my way to the door, peering through at the hallway. The first thought that crossed my mind was one of the obvious kind: it wasn't the least bit familiar. How would I know where to go? I mean, I supposed I could just wing it and everything would turn out fine. I mean, my track record with winging it wasn't _too_ bad.

After a grueling five minutes of severe contemplation, I determined, through a round of _Eenie Meenie Miney Moe,_ that I would go right and see where that took me...

... only it took me to a wall and a bunch of locked doors, causing me to lose all faith in the once reliable _Eenie Meenie Miney Moe._

_**You're lost.** _

_No, I'm just taking the scenic route._

_**Yeah, that big locked door you're standing in front of sure is aesthetically pleasing.** _

_Well, if you're so all-knowing, then help me out, you good-for-nothing disembodied voice._

_**I never said I was all-knowing.** _

_Yes, you did._

_**No, I didn't.** _

_Fine. Don't be helpful._

I trudged past the door, holding on to the handle for support. The hospital slippers that I had put on in my haste weren't exactly comfortable, and the soles of my feet were aching. Sure, the blisters had been all bandaged up, but bandages were still cloth and they still rubbed against my skin. I take it I probably wasn't meant to leave until my blisters had at least receded a bit, but screw the rules, I had incredible stubbornness and a loathsome disposition- kinda like a really old man who refuses to let the reaper take him and boasts about it constantly. Incidentally, I also liked to chase kids off of my lawn. Perhaps I really was an old man…

I felt my head spin around and around and around... I probably should have raided the infirmary food cart before setting off on a quest to find my friends. I was feeling incredibly light-headed and I was beginning to see double vision. So much for 'feeling fine', I guess...

What were two Zephyrs doing in front of me? Last I checked, there was only one of him, unless he asexually reproduced and created an exact replica of himself.

What was I talking about again?

"Lorna... Hey, you don't look so good. Maybe you should lie down somewhere..." They said putting their strange ten-finger hands on my shoulder.

In my state of delirium, I understood that I was supposed to be furious with the Zephyrs, but I was much too hungry to remember why.

"I'm just tired and a bit hungry," I told them. "Maybe a bit sleepy, too."

"Want me to get you something to eat?" they offered. Four eyes looked down upon me with concern.

I shook my head and rubbed my bangs out of my face. "No, no, kind citizen. Now if you'll kindly stand aside? I'm on a mission to find my friends in this airborne labyrinth of doom."

"Well, erm..." They let out a heavy sigh and smiled. "May I join your party, brave warrior of light?"

I let out a heavy sigh and clicked my tongue. "I'm a mage, not a warrior, you uncultured swine."

"Mhmm. Whatever you say," he breathed in my ear and I shuddered, my stomach aching terribly. When I remembered why I was mad at him, he would definitely get what was coming to him.

I felt two hands grab my shoulders and turn me around. "Wrong way," he said, the warmth of his breath against my cold neck making me shudder. He pushed me forward and I blindly let him guide me for I wasn't in any position to lead. I didn't pay much attention to the halls, as I was too engrossed in listening to my stomach growl, my blood pulse underneath my blisters, and our footsteps against the linoleum floor.

"P-P-Personal space, Zephyr…" I murmured weakly, only half intending it to be loud enough for him to hear -so naturally, he didn't hear a thing. I would have removed his hands and asked him to walk side-by-side with me, but I didn't have the heart or the energy to. Besides, how often is one in such close proximity with a very attractive individual - _yeah_ , that was probably stupid of me to say, but I wasn't in my right mind so I gave myself some allowance in that.

"Have you spoken with Doc lately?" he asked casually as we walked through a long hallway with a great window to the right displaying the night sky. If I didn't know any better, I would think it was a huge painting; it looked so pretty from up here.

"Doc?" I questioned. "You mean the Voice?"

We stopped in front of a door and he stepped in front of me, nodding vigorously. Was it just me or did he get taller since we last met? "Yeah, I haven't spoken to him since I met you. It's kinda weird though… Like…" He sighed and shook his head. "Listen, let's just get in here. I have a lot to talk to you about."

"Ah, I… understand. But you'll have to forgive me if I'm not very responsive... I'm just out of it right now…" I said, rubbing my eyes a bit.

"I can tell."

" _And whose fault is that?_ " The voice that replied to him was not my own, nor were the forest-green eyes that glared icily at him, familiar as they were.

He scoffed and glared back. "Easy for you to say, Sun."

The woman standing before us now was stunning. It seemed like she had emerged from the room near us upon hearing our conversation. She was much taller than I was with slender legs that went on for miles -erm, figuratively speaking, of course. Her hair was long and jet black; her lips were as red as blood. She looked like a femme fatale vampire straight out of the movies. I didn't know they made them this hot in real life -holy smokes...

"Stop ogling me, Lorna; it's rude," she snapped without taking her gaze off of Zephyr. "Let's get inside before someone sees the two of you here. This is a staff-only area."

I couldn't stop myself from blurting out "Staff area?" What about my friends? Ugh why did I consistently trust Zephyr when he had given me no reasons to do so? His pretty face? And he just went and led me astray again -and possibly into another trap.

And why does everyone seem to know who I am without introductions? What bullshit.

_**Lorna. I don't trust this.** _

_Then why didn't you speak up earlier?_ I mentally growled at Voice.

_**Listen to me. You need to leave -** _

"Lorna, get in here before Seto Kaiba kicks all three of us off of this blimp." The woman grabbed my arm roughly, her perfectly manicured nails digging sharply into my skin. She shoved me into the room and shut the door behind her.

Upon being released from her grasp I stumbled into a small bed, falling onto my back and feeling the sensitive skin behind my knees rub against the bed frame. "Owie," I whined quietly, pushing myself up and trying not to feel the skin of my stomach and back bend.

_**I was gonna say 'before it's too late', but I suppose at this point, it doesn't really matter.** _

_Do you know anything about these two?_ I asked, suddenly remembering what Zephyr told me earlier.

_**Well, you could say I've been talking to them, too.** _

_Ah, cheating on me, eh?_ I quipped dryly.

_**Oh, no. You are definitely my one and only.**_ There was a hint of some emotion in its tone -an amused chuckle or a wry smirk perhaps. _**Anyway, the lanky one calls himself Zephyr and the one you secretly want to have sex with calls herself Sun.**_

_'Calls himself'? Is that you trying to sound all mysterious and shit?_

_**For once, no, actually. They go by pseudonyms rather than their real names. Anyway, you absolutely must not tell them you still talk to me.** _

_Why? Who are they? Zephyr said he was just like me. Is that true? And what about Sun?_

There was reluctance and then it replied, _**Yes, they are like you in a sense, but they do not come from the same universe as you and they are incredibly dangerous. Now, stop talking to me or they'll get suspicious.**_

_**"**_ Lorna! Earth to Lorna."

_Fine, but you owe me a better explanation than that later._

I looked up at Zephyr who seemed to be worried about me. "Stop zoning out. You're scaring me," he told me, pouting adorably. I shook my head. No, Lorna. Stop perving on the enemy.

Sun looked more irritated than concerned, however, and she hovered over me with her arms crossed impatiently. "Are you talking to him?"

"What? Talking to who?" I asked, in spite of my firm suspicions as to who she was talking about.

"The voice in your head. Zephyr says he spoke to you as well. Is he speaking to you now?" She had the face of a person who already knew the answers to their questions before even asking.

"N-No... it hasn't spoken to me in a week." I lied, trying to pass my nerves off as fear of that poisonous stare; she had the kind of stare that would make you want to say 'Yes, Mistress.' -not that I was into that kind of thing... or any kind of thing... I mean, I'd need to first try sex at least once before leveling up to _that_... Also I'd need a willing partner and y'all know that ain't happening ever.

B-but um... ahem. Enough about that...

A short 'tsk' from Sun told me I was in big trouble. She turned away from me and uncrossed her arms, glancing at the door then putting a hand on her hip. "She's lying to us, Zephyr."

"No, I'm not!" I cried out defensively, making my head hurt slightly in the process. Loud noises were bad enough, but apparently, making them myself was worse.

"Don't antagonize her, Sun," he retorted, giving me a pained smile. This time, he spoke to me, but much more softly. "You can trust us, Lorna. I don't know what he's been telling you, but he's lying about everything."

Before I could stop myself, I blurted out, "Oh, and what have _you_ ever done for me?"

It finally came back to me -the chase, the alley… _Viola…_ and he just _left me there_.

"I almost died, Zephyr," I snapped at him. Part of me wanted to destroy him -a very strong part of me. It reminded me a bit of how I felt dueling Viola, and why wouldn't it? After all, it was his fault I ran into her. It was a strange feeling being furious. Sure, I got angry and yelled at people sometimes, but I never felt like this until Viola… until Zephyr. "What the _fuck_ are you thinking? You leave me to my death like that and now you want to be friends? You want me to trust you?" My voice rose higher and higher as I spoke and for some reason, he just stayed silent. "I was _terrified_! And _nobody_ was there for me! I was all alone… and it was _your_ fault!" My voice echoed a bit in the room and I shut my mouth, my hands going to the fabric of the oversized hospital gown I was wearing, clenching it in my fist and releasing it repeatedly.

Zephyr winced at the outburst and opened his mouth to speak but shut it slowly. He looked over at Sun whose face hadn't moved at all during my speech.

" _I killed someone, Zephyr._ How could you make me do that? How could you force that on me?"

He still remained silent, trying not to meet my gaze, and for all my rage and frustration and despair, it might as well have been a declaration of guilt or an apology -either way, I didn't care.

Midst the silence that followed, a lone voice rang out. "So what?"

It was Sun. Her mask of nonchalance like a porcelain figure -untouchable, unchangeable, inflexible. She dropped one of the arms that was crossed over her chest and leaned back against the wall, her nail tapping the wallpaper behind her slowly and rhythmically.

I was at a loss for words that could adequately express how thoroughly outraged I was, how deeply those two words thrust into my heart. My brain worked on trying to find a way to comprehend how she could just dismiss everything that had happened and all it could come up with was the notion that Sun was ruthless, heartless, and psychotic. "How could you -"

"'Oh, boo hoo. I'm _so tortured_ and lonely. Feel sorry for me!' is all _I_ heard," she interrupted, her eyes narrowing slightly as they gazed upon my face, which was surprisingly dry for all the tears I wanted to cry. "That 'Guardian' was trying to destroy you, so you killed her in self-defense. Everyone kills -even that 'voice' in your head you like so much. And she won't be the first person you kill," she said, making my heart flutter in anxiety. "By the looks of you, I can tell you've got a lot more killing to do, and if you feel this shitty after them all, you'll lose your mind -maybe even kill _yourself_ next," she added grimly, smirking because suicide was such a pleasant topic, really.

I kept my mouth shut after that because I couldn't find a single word to say to that woman. She was someone out of my league and if I tried to speak with her, she would just suck me into her darkness. I wasn't going to kill anyone else. She was lying, and I would prove her wrong if it was the last thing I did.

"Anyway, I dragged you over here because you're dying and, as pitiful as you are, I need you," she told me, her eyes no longer glaring at me, but still stern and sharp.

"And what exactly do you plan to do about that?" I asked icily, hugging my own body and feeling the bumps on the sides of my abdomen still aching lightly under the soft pressure of my fingers.

"Well, I was going to have Zephyr offer you some drugged water," she remarked coolly. "But seeing how mad you are at him, that plan has little merit now."

"Drugged?" My head was startled up and I gave her an incredulous look. "You were going to drug me?"

"Yes, yes. Keep up, kid." Sun rolled her eyes. "But we still have to force you into the Inbetween somehow…" The word 'force' didn't bode well with me… "Zephyr, would you please…"

Before I could gather my bearings, Zephyr was right in front of me, pushing me back onto the bed and holding my face roughly with his hand. He straddled me aggressively, his legs pushing uncomfortably upon my own legs and skin. Try as I did, he was too heavy for me to fight against, especially since Sun had grabbed my hands and was pushing them high above my head.

"W-What are you do -" Something cool splashed into my dry mouth and I choked. "Sto-" _\- cough-_ Zephyr was pouring water into my mouth from a tall glass of water, but I knew better -that wasn't water. Not wanting to choke anymore, I stopped trying to cry out, knowing nobody was going to hear me, least of all my friends…

His face swayed over me. There were two Zephyrs again… Would ya look at that? They looked so frustrated, biting their lips and narrowing their eyes. I wonder what had… their panties… in a twist… The two Suns were new, though. I guess she was full of surprises. Their heads were upside down with their lips puckered up in a pained smirk.

Man that shit they were forcing down my throat worked fast…

I felt so numb. The pressure was gone. The Suns and the Zephyrs decided to leave me alone to stare at the starry ceiling - _oh, how beautiful… I love… stars…_

_**Lorna, hang in there!** _

_Voice…_ My mind was sluggish. Everything felt strange and quiet and calm…

_**Stay calm, Lorna. I'll find you in there. I won't let the monsters get you. You trust me; remember?** _

_I… trust… you…_


	24. Nox I

"What am I... doing here?" he asks himself, looking around the blank white canvas he's laying in -its only subject. His pale skin and striking white hair make him blend in with the scenery like a ghost.

_Am I in the Inbetween again?_ he asks himself, looking around cautiously, trying to find any inconsistency in the pure white.

This isn't the first time he has been here and, if he were to count the many times, he'd only depress himself. What will they make him do this time? What trials will he have to overcome?

"Ryou Bakura," a voice says, echoing against invisible walls and against the inside of his skull.

He looks up and he finds _her_ -the one who always greets him in the Inbetween, a confirmation of his unvoiced fears - _Mystical Elf._ She stands before him as she always does, silent, solemn and unmoving like a statue, a monument to ground him in this realm.

She gives him a concerned look from behind her sender, interlaced fingers, her long golden veil of hair swaying idly against her shoulders and back. "What brings you here, young warrior?" she asks, her celestial voice making ripples against the endless abyss around him.

"I... " He wants to shake his head and say that he doesn't know, but he does, and all too well. With a sigh, the words are out of his mouth. "It's... _him._ " And he's talking about the spirit that has taken residence in his mind. "The Spirit of the Ring." He hisses it like a curse.

"Zorc, the Dark One," she says with a slight nod.

Yes... that's his name. He doesn't hear it often for all that spirit likes to talk about himself, but he recalls it being mentioned at least once, but not by the Spirit himself, but by someone hiding in a deep, valley of his mind, cast away like a pariah; this more human presence has been missing for some time now, leaving more room for the spread of Zorc's darkness. He has been branching his disease and corruption of the mind like poison ivy crawling on the walls and Ryou wonders how much longer before he no longer has a mind of his own.

"You'll lose your mind more quickly by lingering in this realm," the elf warns him.

He smiles bitterly at her. "You say that like I have a choice."

_Big bROtHER BiG broTHER! WA TCH T H IS!_

He winces and shakes his head. This voice follows him every time he is sent to the Inbetween, dancing around his head to the tune of an eerie silent song.

"She haunts you even now."

He doesn't need her to state the obvious; he knows whose voice lures him here and wraps him in a silk cocoon of bittersweet memories and immortal regrets.

"It is the hand in your heart that holds on too tightly that allows Zorc to gain more power... that allows _Amane_ to reach out to you." The boy shuts his eyes tightly at the sound of her name, trying not to think about her voice and her smile as she skips straight into -"You are so close to the realm of the dead and the part of your soul that still aches can sense it and it longs to be with her once more."

"But that voice..." he says in a strained voice.

"It does not belong to her."

"Then who..."

"Do you remember what I told you when we first met?" She tilts her head to the side slightly.

He wracks his mind for the answer to that question, but in the Inbetween, everything is so vague, so dreamlike, that even as he spends almost whole days in that realm, his mind cannot grasp the reality of it, and when he awakens, he holds hardly any mention of being there. He remembers Serenity, though, and he remembers Amane.

"Your purpose lies elsewhere, Ryou. You, Serenity, and five other humans from your realm are what we in the Inbetween call _anchors_."

He can swear that this _guide_ of his makes less sense each time he meets her. "An anchor for _what_?"

She frowns and looks above him into the whiteness. "Not _what_ , but _whom._ " And as Ryou realizes what she means, she speaks again. "Turn around and look behind you, Warrior."

As he turns around, he feels his limbs morphing, his body becoming one that is no longer his own. His eyes become sharper and light becomes painful to look at as it pours into his new nocturnal eyes. And then it begins to dim and he can finally see the scenery reborn from the blank space that once existed around him.

It doesn't hurt as much as the first time, and it might be because his body is growing accustomed to the unsolicited bone shifting and the recession of skin, revealing a mechanical skeleton beneath it. He flexes his arms and arches his neck, looking around the landscape.

It's always the same whenever he comes here. The scent of rot reaches his nostrils, a moist perfume that he can almost taste at the back of his throat. The ground is littered with gravestones and the gravestones are covered in moss. No flowers are laid for the dead here, and if there were, they would be black and rotten. He can scarcely see anything around him, but he's been here enough times to know every tree and mound of dirt in this miserable place. A mausoleum stands feebly in the distance, challenging the painful monotony.

He had made a beeline for that mausoleum the first time he found himself in this realm, thinking that it was where he needed to go, why he had been brought there. He had found nothing save for a few graves with names he didn't know and didn't care for, as well as enough cobwebs to last him a lifetime, and after doing off in the only place where the ground wasn't moist and slimy, he regained consciousness in the waking world.

It was his second time when he met Serenity. The _Elf_ had told him to try and find _Nox_ , and he had wandered aimlessly enough to know that this _Nox_ wasn't anywhere in the cemetery. Perhaps if he knew what _Nox_ was supposed to be, he wouldn't have had a hard time trying to find it.

He had then decided that trekking enough in one direction would eventually lead him _somewhere_ and, to his honest surprise, it _did_ -straight into a light so bright it made his eyes hurt, and at the center of that light were two beings that looked to be made entirely of photons, gleaming in the sun like stars and creating galaxies of color every time they collided. If _Nox_ is dark and dark is the absence of light, then Ryou knew he was in the wrong place.

It was then that a different figure had appeared, _Peten the Dark Clown._ He didn't need introductions; he simply pushed Ryou in the right direction. "You must protect the white warrior at all costs - _Lumen._ " And that was when he saw her from behind the cracked mask. Her face looked absolutely numb as her body flailed about, destroying everything around it. A small waif-like girl flitted about around her, trying to avoid the attacks while aiming a long, ornate bow at the attacker.

It's this same face that looks up at him now, her eyes now open, looking black under the veil of night. Her face is a mask of concern and she clings to his arm like a small child afraid of separation.

This is _Lumen_ , isn't it? So where is he meant to go? Where is _Nox_?

"Zorc?"

_Zorc?_

Ryou arches an eyebrow at the girl and shifts uncomfortably at her closeness. Did she usually do that to complete strangers?

_**Wake up, you fool! What is going on? Lorna!** _

That other voice… it's _him_ isn't it?

Oh, well, now this makes sense. The girl is travelling with the Spirit, which is why she has appeared at Ryou's side here; at least, that's what he reasons from her presence and the barely audible voice at the back of his mind calling out to her.

Taking advantage of his bewildered silence, she asks, "How did we get back here? I thought we left the graveyard. What's going on?"

"I'm... I'm just as confused as you are," he mumbles, finding it increasingly odd that Zorc would allow such a small and dependent girl to tag along with him without her being of some kind of value to him. However, the mere fact that she is currently standing beside Ryou in the Inbetween and the fact that she was the elusive White Warrior that he had fought with Serenity earlier that day makes him think that there may be more to her than her mousy appearance.

He wonders if she even recognizes him from that fight or whether she would recognize Serenity if she were to see her. She seems so different from the fearsome creature she was before, stripped as she is of her sterling silver armor and wearing a ragged white button up with tan slacks.

"Well, at least your zombie things are gone now." _Zombies? What on earth is he doing in my body?_ "Let's just get out here as soon as possible."

A soft rustle and the sound of something digging in -or rather digging _out_ of the ground indicates that perhaps the poor girl has spoken too soon on the matter.

" _Fuck..._ " the girl whines, her hands clutching his arm more tightly now.

"We need to run," Ryou orders her, staring down at her intensely while trying to free his arm, only to have her struggle to hold on.

The fog begins to thicken around them like a white soup, swirling and dancing in the air and almost in unison, they both shiver. All around them, uninvited guests begin to make their presence known, shuffling madly in their direction like flies around a mound of garbage. The girl -

_**God dammit. Lorna, wake up.** _

_Lorna_ tensed, her eyes flitting up at Ryou's brown ones in desperation. "What are you doing?" she all but shrieks. "I can't _walk_!"

"What do you mean 'you can't walk'?" he exclaims, his voice rising an octave, his panic increasing tenfold at the idea of dragging a girl who can't walk through a horde of hungry walking corpses. "We can't outrun them if I have to carry you," he groans.

"Well, you can't just _leave_ me here!" she cries, her nails digging painfully into his skin now. "Don't be an asshole, Zorc!"

His eyes widen at her words. She still believes she's talking to Zorc, and it pains Ryou to think that throughout this entire conversation, this girl had thought everything Ryou said was entirely in character for Zorc. "Of course I'm not going to leave you behind!" he argues, glaring down at her. "And I'm not Zorc either," he adds dourly.

She does a slow double take and gently loosens her bear-trap-like grip around his forearm, causing some relief to course through him -as much relief as one could have when facing a horde of bloodthirsty creatures.

With a sigh, he scoops the girl into his arms. "You could stand to lose some weight," he notes, surveying the area for an easy escape route.

Lorna lets out a strangled gasp. "Why you -! Are you _sure_ you're not Zorc?"

Ryou frowns but doesn't say anything in response; instead, he carries the both of them forward, crossing the massive expanse of dead grass and weeds, past the fungus covered tombstones, towards the only place they could go if they wanted a chance at survival -the mausoleum -hoping that whatever was buried there wouldn't come to life as well.

She grips his neck tightly as stares back at the undead following them, feeling desperate and small as she watches something rise up out of the ground where they had only just been standing. "This is… unreal," she whispers against his ear, speaking mostly to herself.

Panic grips at Ryou's heart as humanoid figures pool out from behind the mausoleum, coming towards his jogging figure.

_Well, there goes_ that _plan…_

He begins to slow himself down to a pace he could think at, his eyes looking around once more. A soft ticklish sensation distracts him for a split second as he feels Lorna bury her head in his neck, trying not to look at the danger they were in, almost like not looking would make it all go away. Her short black hair brushes lightly against his face and collar, and he tries not to let it bother him too much as he searches.

"Can't be easy," he hears a husky voice remark from behind him, followed by a chuckle, "carrying a 120 pound girl around like that while you're running for your life."

When Ryou tries to twist his head around slightly to see who spoke, he almost stumbles -it's someone he never expects to see.

"Marik?" he gasps, and for less than a moment, the zombies are the last thing on his mind. This was a boy who was threatening him and his friends -one that he had seen his darker half plotting with earlier. As far as Ryou is concerned, this guy is bad news. "What are you doing in here?"

"Trying to save you," he replies smoothly. He's standing in the middle of the grass, unperturbed by the creatures all around him, and perhaps with good reason; it seems like they aren't even trying to attack him at all, as they shamble past him as though he were one of their own. It makes the white-haired boy feel even more uneasy than he already is. He's quite the sight, standing there in a t-shirt and dark jeans, looking all too ordinary for the scenery.

"Are you?" he asks in a doubtful voice.

The blonde smirks, noting the way the other boy is looking around anxiously. "They won't attack you, you know. They can't even see you."

"B-But they were chasing me!" Ryou could have sworn they were. Are Marik's words true?

"Were they really?" that smug voice replies.

The way he casually stood before them with a hand on his hip as though the Inbetween was the most normal place to be gave Ryou an indication that he was up to no good, and he found himself tightening his grip on the girl in his arms.

"Lorna," he calls out to the girl now. "You don't have to hide. I won't bite."

Lorna's head curiously unburies itself from the crook of Ryou's neck and her eyes are fixed on the newcomer suspiciously -it seems Ryou's mistrustful feelings aren't exactly unfounded. "What's _he_ doing here?" she hisses, meaning only for Ryou to hear, but making her words very clear to the Egyptian.

"So, Marik, what are you _really_ here for?" he asks, narrowing his brown eyes.

"Right," the other boy starts, "First things first, I'm _not_ Marik. At least, not the one _she_ knows…" He glances quickly at Lorna before continuing. "Common misconception, actually. The name's _Malik_."

"Same difference," Lorna mumbles, causing Ryou to let out a quiet snort.

"- _and_ I'm really here to help you, believe it or not."

Ryou eyes _Malik_ with disdain and shoots another question at him. "So how exactly would you help us?"

"I can help her walk again, for starters," he offers.

These words momentarily take Lorna's attention away from the walking dead shuffling aimlessly around them. "You can?"

"Of course," he smiles. "You just have to trust me."

"Wh-What do you mean?" she asks, her hands unconsciously clenching over Ryou's armored shoulder.

"Relax, it's not hard, but you'll have to do it yourself."

" _How_? I can't -"

"Walk?" he continues for her. "In the realm of the living maybe, but here, your legs are blister free. In fact, why don't you have Ryou put you down and try 'em out yourself? See if I'm lying."

"O-Okay," she says as she begins to untangle herself from Ryou's arms, but he refuses to let her go, after all, he'd protected her from the zombies, and he wasn't about to throw her to the sharks now. She trusts this _Malik_ way too easily and he gets the feeling that she may not be the sharpest tool in the shed.

"How do you know so much?" he snaps at the other boy. "Lorna, do you know him?"

"W-Well, not really..."

"How would he know about your injury then?" Ryou himself hadn't known about it and his waking body is currently with Lorna.

She stares at Ryou's face, and he can pinpoint the exact moment that Lorna realizes what is wrong with this situation. Her eyes widen and she bites her bottom lip in worry.

Malik, who had been silent while they spoke, chuckles, "Well, you got me there, I guess." His smile turns dark, like that of a demon and he steps backwards, away from them. "If you don't want my help, then I'll simply take my leave. And I genuinely wish you luck, Lorna." With a swift turn of his heel, he begins to strut away.

Ryou stares after him, his eyes straining to see him in the distance amid the smog and darkness. His reverie is only broken by an abrupt shake of his shoulder; he had almost completely forgotten about the girl in his arms.

Once she gets his attention, she bites her lip sheepishly and turns her gaze to the ground. "Can you put me down now?"

As she speaks, he realizes that she has been blushing furiously and, feeling all too conscious of the warmth of her body all of a sudden, he feels his own cheeks heat up as well.

"A-Are you sure about this? What if Malik was lying?"

She shrugs her shoulders against his chest. "Only one way to find out."

At that, he nods and begins to lower her slowly while slipping his arm out from under her legs. With a soft rustle, she plants her feet on the ground, still clutching his shoulders for support. In one quick motion, she relinquishes her grasp and stands up on her own.

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be." She remarks, fidgeting and wobbling as she tested out her legs. "Now it should be easier to find a way out of here..."

_Big brother! Big brother! Watch this!_

The voice sneaks up on him; it waltzes into his ear and brings back memories of _that day._ He can't let it distract him now.

"Hey, did you hear that?"

Ryou realizes that his recollection had prevented him from hearing anything else and he chastises himself for not being vigilant enough. "No, what is it?"

"It was like a little girl or something."

"Wait." He startles. "You mean you can hear that, too?"

"So you _did_ hear it?" she inquires uncertainly, cocking her head to the right. "Y'know, I wouldn't normally suggest something so silly, but I think we should follow it."

He wants to agree and dismiss the idea; he wants to tell her he marched up and down this graveyard searching for Amane to no avail, but this time, it feels different, like he really can find her this time, and he senses the flame of his determination reignite itself.

"Um.. are they _staring_ at us?" she whimpers, breaking him out of his trance and alerting him to the alarming silence that surrounding them instead of the scratching of diseased, decomposed feet and stumps dragging against the dirt.

One deceased man's empty eye sockets meet his own eyes in an almost challenging glare, almost threatening him. The man's fingers twitch slightly and his posture changes so that he leans forward, every protrusion of his spine appearing through cracked skin.

"I thought they weren't after us." His voice is hushed and hesitant, as though too high of a volume would bring a start to the onslaught.

_Big brother, where are you?_

"We should probably run and ask questions later." Lorna grabs his wrist and begins to tug him in a direction that looks relatively safe, and Ryou doesn't need much coaxing from her to bolt after her as fast as his legs could take him.

Judging by the beat of hundreds of strong legs against the ground, their fears of being pursued were completely justified, and the louder the beats come, the faster they will their own legs to move more rapidly, straining their muscles and letting adrenaline carry their bodies farther.

_It hurts... Help me, Ryou..._

"Hey, isn't that your name?" he hears her yell over the sound of the wind howling against his ears, her words coming from somewhere to his right. He is a bit surprised that she even knows his name, but he figures it must have something to do with Zorc.

"Yeah," he replies, deciding to be truthful and direct; he doesn't have the energy to avoid both the zombies and her questions. "It's my sister's voice."

"You have a sister?" She struggles to get the question out between the breathless gasps and grunts.

Ryou gasps for breath before answering. " _Had,"_ he corrects her. _"_ I _had_ a sister."

It takes her a moment to process his statement, but once the painful meaning dawns on her, she lets out a soft "Oh" that she herself can scarcely hear. "I'm sorry," she calls out to him and he can't help but crack a smile in spite of himself.

Out of the fog, a large black building begins to emerge, and without a word spoken between the two, it becomes their destination. They have already far outrun the monsters, but the lingering fog and the distant sound of the dirt being disturbed tells them it's not over yet. However, the prospect of slowing down is very inviting.

"Do you think she's in there?" Lorna asks, slowing down as she approaches the iron gates, her hands running against the rusting metal fence. "This place is kinda creepy." She shivers and shifts her weight, unsure of whether or not to pass through the gates.

"We don't have many options," Ryou reminds her, his eyes travelling over to the undead still pursuing them. "I'm more worried that we won't be able to get inside. It looks pretty fortified."

Lorna nods slightly and follows her companion through the gate, shutting it behind her, as though that would stop their enemies from coming after them. Ryou grabs her wrist to hurry her along before anything caught up to them. She jerks forward, startled at being tugged forward so abruptly, letting out a breathy gasp.

"Let's check that door," she suggests, pointing towards the large front door of the manor, a sturdy black mass of wood. It looks surprisingly well-kept for a building so abandoned; one would expect the wood to be splintered and punctured after some time in this foggy and moist graveyard.

Without hesitation, he jogs up the rickety porch steps up to the door and reaches for the handle, rattling it impatiently. "Locked," he confirms the suspicions that both of them have. "Should we look for a backdoor?"

_Big brothe Ur tS ME. its HURTING M E._

"It's louder here." Lorna puts her fingers to her temples, the beginnings of a headache squeezing and punching her blood vessels. "We're probably in the right place. The backdoor is worth a shot."

The two of them make a mad dash for the back of the mansion, the feeling of time running out nagging at them both, like the incessant sound of ticking in the dead of night.

Less than five minutes later, the backdoor turns out to be a dead end as well, and the duo stand helplessly before it, still trying to catch their breaths from their running earlier.

They can almost sense the undead upon them, their festering mouths filled with maggots and twisting, twitching in animalistic hunger. In their mind's eye, the horde is massive, blanketing the acres of cemetery they had just traversed, and neither of them want to think of the repercussions of finding themselves in the middle of it; the image is nightmare inducing.

"What now?" Lorna asks, her eyes moving fast but not seeing a thing, like a broken camera. Her mind is so preoccupied with imagining her own mangled corpse hobbling with the rest that it would risk overheating if it tried to process anything else.

Thinking quickly, Ryou points at something behind him. "That greenhouse!" he hisses, pulling her hand and running in the direction of a small building made entirely of glass and so thickly covered in vines that it blends in quite well with the weeds and willows of the overgrown garden. However, that's not what catches the boy's attention.

He can see something in the glass, something shining brightly through whatever cracks are still visible behind the vines, in a violet so bright it almost looks pink. It expands then contracts like a pulse, and as the two approach it, the voice sounds again.

_BIG BROTHER -_

"I'm coming, Amane!" he all but yells, abandoning Lorna and running ahead of her.

"W-Wait!" the girl cries out, trying to keep up with him, her sneakers slipping on the damp grass.

Ryou's hands grip the handle of the greenhouse door on instinct; he turns it without thinking and doesn't even have time to feel surprised that it actually opens. There is a dull scratching noise as he walks into the room and it's as if all the noise in his head was muted and replaced with static.

"Amane?" he calls out.

In front of him, a purple flame hovers in midair, tempting him. He doesn't know what to make of it, but his heart tells him that it absolutely has something to do with his sister's voice.

The flame expands and his sister's voice screams out at him again.

_Pl E A SE HEL P_

His breath catches in his throat as his legs carry him forward towards the flame.

_iM HURTING_

He reaches forward, his eyes never once leaving the blinding light of the flame.

"Ryou…" Lorna stands at the doorway, unsure of what to do. "What are you doing? I don't think that's safe," she says, but her words are lost to him.

The light calls to him, and soon it sucks him in.

'Amane, where are you?'

Lorna watches on as the light pulses and expands, her heart racing for fear that Ryou would get hurt, leaving her alone, and she scolds herself for such selfish thoughts. Everything happens in slow motion now. Ryou's whole body shudders as the light engulfs him, almost blinding her, and then it's over, and Ryou is on the ground in this old battered toolshed of this old battered mansion.

The swarm is getting closer, banging on doors, rapping on windows.

" _Let me give you a hint… Lumen."_

At first there is white, always white. Then black is all she sees.


	25. Transmogrification

_Oh... my head feels like it was violently penetrated by the Eiffel Tower..._

I was laying somewhere hard and damp, my bangs sticking to my face. It wasn't the most comfortable strange place I'd ever woken up in; sure, the scorching hot sidewalk wasn't exactly pleasant, but this was definitely a step down from the blimp infirmary bed.

Another thing I noticed, though, was the noise, or, more accurately, the _lack_ of noise. It sounded like that moment just before you go to sleep, where it shouldn't be so quiet, but it sounds like death and you're at peace. All of a sudden, I wanted nothing more than to keep my eyes shut and sink into the serene abyss of dreamland.

I inhaled the fresh air deeply, feeling more relaxed than I had in weeks. Wherever I was, I didn't want to leave -not ever.

"Good to see you're enjoying yourself," a deep and amused voice spoke up, breaking the beautiful silence.

Even though I _really didn't want to_ , I began to drag my heavy eyelids up like two rusty garage doors, feeling my heart rate as it began to speed up drowsily like the flapping wings of a bird that is just realizing that it's in danger. Soon I was in a semi-sober state in which I could at least sit up and look around.

With a casual clawed hand stroking his chin and his legs crossed, a man leaned against the wooden walls of a small cottage. He looked like he had come from a fairy tale, dressed in his exaggerated jester clothes and donning his cryptic mask. The scene was completed by the thick forest of fir trees that surrounded them.

"You're that clown guy!" I slurred, recalling his face from a dream I had. I remembered him vaguely, and from what unclear memories I had, he was a pigsty -not just one pig, a whole fucking drove of them, all packed in one shitty little person.

"Peten," he corrected, pushing away from the wall and giving me a sweeping bow that I was at least 73% sure was completely sarcastic. "And don't be rude," he chastised. "I saved your life. If I hadn't found you, your soul would have been sent to hell and your every waking moment would have been agony and suffering, but hey, by all means hate me."

_Oh, great. He reads minds..._

"You..." I started to say, but my sentence was cut off by my own ignorance. It was a bit difficult to hate someone when all you could remember were bright flashes and echoes of emotions. Anger and hurt stood out the most, but that wasn't much to go on.

"Yeah, yeah..." he moved his hand away from his chin and waved it dismissively. "I know you don't remember me," he informed me calmly. "Weird though... are you a procrastinator?"

Aha, yes, professionally actually. "Somewhat," I lied, causing him to cross his arms. If he had a face, he probably would have arched his brow and smirked knowingly. I hated his hypothetical smug face already. Besides, what kind of question was that?

He nodded quietly, his mask hiding his emotions from me so effectively that it left me uncertain and anxious. What was he thinking?

He snapped his fingers and pushed away from the cottage, stepping -no, _swaggering_ towards me like he had an agenda that he couldn't wait to fulfill. "I know exactly how to make you remember," he told me, and judging by the way he approached me, I decided I didn't want to know what he was thinking anymore.

"Why don't I remember?" I asked him, pushing my fists into the grass to heave myself up to my feet. I felt his icy claw reach out to my elbow to steady me and shuddered away from him, goosebumps immediately rising all over my body like an infection. I glared at him in warning, stepping away from him.

He tilted his head to the side, his hat slipping slightly. He raised his hand up to adjust it and raised his second hand, palm facing me in a peaceful gesture. "Well, I'm not quite sure. You're the only one who reacted this way," he replied, offering me his icky claw again.

"Do I have to?" I whined, flinching away from it. "It's not like I can run away from you. I don't even know where I am."

"Fair enough," he told me, gesturing towards the cottage, an instruction which was straightforward enough. Whatever I was here for, it was inside those four walls.

I looked around for the door handle, a small golden, bejewelled thing that was too precious for this world. I turned it gently and pushed the door open, only to find myself in yet another forest clearing. "What's this?" I asked, as I felt myself being pushed through the door by Peten into an identical area as the one I had been in before.

Peten elected to ignore my question, and for a few moments, the only sound in the clearing was the sound of our shoes shuffling against the grass and dead leaves. I couldn't hear anything else; not a single bird, wolf, or insect.

In the middle of the grass, however, in place of the cottage was a small lake, that looked more like someone photoshopped an uneven one hundred square feet out of the ground and replaced it with nothing. The only indication that it was a lake was the fact that some of the 'nothing' washed against the weeds and grass at its bank. "What are we doing here?" I asked in a shaky voice.

"You know, Lorna," he spoke, my name rolling off his tongue like it belonged to him. I almost gagged. "When you dream, you never really forget. It always comes back to you -like déja vu. The Inbetween is pretty similar. You don't forget what happens here; your mind just files it away for when you need it. If I gave you some time, I'm sure you would just remember on your own… but unfortunately for you, I don't have time." He said his last words darkly. Time for what?

I didn't even have time to process the thoughts in my head as they flitted through, and before I knew it, I was walking towards the lake, my legs moving automatically. Fuck, man, I thought I'd fixed that.

_BiIG BrO tHe r._

It was coming from the lake.

_ITHURTSITHURTSITHURTS._

Wait… "Ryou!" I cried out, my legs beginning to submerge in the scalding hot water of the lake. I was on a steep decline, and every moment I remained in the water made me feel like my nerves were being compressed and broken, cut at their roots, and all I could bring myself to cry out was "Bakura? Where's Bakura?"

Why couldn't I stop my legs? I just kept going _down_ , _down… down… deeper…_

It was up to my shoulders and then I could see everything happen again.

" _Saturn, attack!" - "TÉA!"_

I definitely remembered that, and it echoed in my mind. Not my best moment… Oh, my God, I hoped she was okay. I blacked out right after initiating that attack. I didn't even remember getting that gross demon stuff off of me.

As my head began to submerge, a new image came up of something I couldn't recognize. My vision was clouded and shaky, but I could remember the feeling of my arms flailing around. Something pure white leaped around across my field of vision and through my peripheral sight, shooting silver bolts at me, and to shield me, I saw a pair of huge raven wings spread in front of me. It all happened too fast, but I felt like I needed to know it.

" _Mystical Elf? How is it possible though…"_ The voices were so faded, almost like I was hearing them in my sleep.

" _Goddess, are you alright?"_

" _I have to fin n…"_

_Him again?_

They went on for a time… I could scarcely hear them, let alone recognize them, but whatever they were talking about, it was in this place… somewhere. I just couldn't exactly comprehend what this place was… where this place was… Was it in my head? Or was I physically there?

The voices began to fade away like they were walking away from me, leaving me behind, and all I could hear was the rustle of the blades of grass as they swayed with the wind, and all I could wonder was why could I hear grass when I was under -

Involuntarily, my legs jerked beneath me, my neck craning back and my arms waving around erratically. I was drowning. Of course I was fucking drowning. I walked into a Lorna-deep lake and expected myself _not_ to drown? Who _does_ that? Well… me, apparently. Though I didn't exactly remember issuing the order and sending it to my brain.

Something both cold and warm grabbed at my forearms and began to tug me upwards. Was I being saved? I couldn't feel relieved because boiling water was still rushing into my lungs and my eyes were still stinging, opening and closing sluggishly, going against the heavy water.

_**Lorna! Hang in there!** _

_Who…?_

My vision was clouding… or was that the water? It was getting darker, too, but the persistent force kept pulling on my arms, determined to bring me to safety, making the burn go away and replacing it with a cool, tingling sensation. It was a pleasant change from the heat and the tight pain that had covered my entire body.

"I got you… I got you. It's okay…"

A rush of icy wind blew over me and I opened my eyes abruptly, taking in the new scenery, a blur of violet, green and crimson. Above me was a golden figure, a tall knight, his armor glimmering above me like the sun. I felt like I was blind for a moment until the sun moved and all I could see was the dull bronze above me.

"Who are you?" I asked, pushing dirt beneath me and sitting up.

The figure took a few steps back and bowed slightly. "A friend," he replied with a voice like the trickle of a stream and just as pleasing. He extended one of his gauntlets to help me up and I found myself grabbing it easily and without a second thought.

Standing up beside him, I found myself significantly smaller. "Well, uh…" I let out a sigh and a nervous chuckle. "I don't know whether or not to thank you. I just don't know what's what here."

"Ah, well…" He laughed. "You get used to that. I'm on your side, though."

I felt dread pooling at the pit of my stomach at the thought of staying here any longer. 'Getting used to it' wasn't exactly on my agenda. "Can I get out of here?"

"Yes," he replied, gesturing towards a path in the large forest we were in, and began to walk; I followed him. I knew better than to fully trust him, but there weren't many other options.

"Can _you_ get me out of here?" I asked, looking around at the never-ending lines of trees all around. Our path was clear enough, but the end of it wasn't, almost like it went on forever, which, I had to admit, wasn't exactly a comforting thought.

The helmet turned around and I saw his eyes, bright hazel, shifting between brown and emerald like the foliage shifting around us. "N-No…" he replied hesitantly. "It's not quite that simple. We need to find one of the seven Gatekeepers."

I took a deep breath. Something told me this wasn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows. "Well, fine. Where do we find one of those?"

He rubbed his neck and looked behind him. " _Peten_ was one of those Gatekeepers."

Oh, shit. I knew where he was going with this. If _Peten_ was a Gatekeeper, then this wouldn't be quite as straightforward as I had so foolishly hoped. "Are they all assholes?" I asked miserably

We were beginning to approach a mountainous region. The way in front of us was almost completely blocked except for a small canyon in front of us. I don't know if you remember it being mentioned earlier, but I was an Arizona girl, and as an Arizona girl, I just want it to be known that we very much prefer being on top of the canyon, not at the bottom.

Undeterred by the dark cavern he was leading me into, the man in armor replied, "Just about every single one is an asshole. Last time I was here, I almost died because _Mystical Elf_ didn't think it was my time to leave." He sounded irritated, and sarcastic… and human? I knew I should have caught on to this earlier, but was he…

"Are you also… in a coma?" I inquired slowly, feeling a bit nervous about hearing the answer. Was he with Sun and Zephyr? Or was he normal -like me? I wanted to question him about that, too, but there was no way of getting any sort of reliable answer out of him. I trusted Zephyr before, and look where _that_ got me.

He peered at me curiously, almost like he had expected me to know the answer to that question. "I am."

_Oh…_ I didn't know why, but his answer made my heart sink. I guess, part of me wanted him to be the mysterious disembodied voice I kept hearing in my head. Putting a face and tone to the voice would have made me feel considerably more comfortable.

"What's your name?" I demanded, stuttering on the last word and looking down. I shivered as a cool breeze ruffled my clothes. I suppose going to a whole other realm didn't mean getting practical clothing, so I was stuck with the flimsy hospital gown I had been wearing when I was ambushed.

"Y-You don't know… do you?" he asked, sounding almost dejected. Was he really?

"Am I supposed to?"

He stopped walking just before the mouth of the gorge, putting hands on his hands on his hips and stretching back in annoyance. He let out a quiet groan and mockingly lamented, "And here I was, thinking we were pals."

My heart sped up slightly at his tone. "I… I'm sorry. I don't remember you."

He chuckled and straightened up, moving his hands to the bottom of his helmet. In one quick move, the helmet was off and underneath it was his face. His skin was bronze and the sweat falling from his hairline did nothing to obstruct his handsome features. His eyes were dark and his lashes were long, like they belonged to some fairy prince. What stuck out the most, however, was that his hair was a startling shade of blonde, contrasting with his face. He had a nasty case of helmet hair, and it was ruffled and sticking out everywhere, but somehow that was even more celestial? I just… didn't know?

My mouth dried and I felt my cheeks heat up at the sheepish grin he was giving me. "Still don't remember me?" he asked, pointing towards his face.

_Oh, trust me. I thoroughly examined that fine work of art and if I had ever seen such magnificence, I would have remembered it._

Ah, of course, I didn't quite say _that_.

His soft laugh reached my ears (which were probably quite red) and he reassured me, "Hey, don't sweat it. This place can mess you up." I tried to look at his face again, but it was like his beauty was blinding. No, I'm sorry. Enough exaggeration. I'm done.

"Yeah," I murmured sheepishly, taking a step towards him. "Let's just… get out of here quickly before everyone thinks I'm dead again and I end up in another morgue." Quickly remembering that I hadn't gotten his name, I asked, "What should I call you?"

"Malik," he replied coolly. He was right; the name was certainly familiar.

I gave him a wry smile and quipped, "Any relation to Marik?"

He let out a sigh like he'd been asked that before, possibly by me. With a good-natured chuckle he told me, "Nope. Well, kinda… He's my anchor."

"Your… 'anchor'?" I asked. I was making a joke, not asking for another complication. God dammit.

He was being incredibly patient with me, considering the fact that all us coma people were apparently supposed to come with all this prepackaged information. "It's how we're able to project ourselves in the Realm of the Living. Most coma patients remain with their bodies, but something brought _us_ here instead."

"So… these anchors…" I spoke slowly, trying to put the puzzle together. "Our souls are… connected to them?"

He nodded swiftly. "That's the gist of it. They allow us to have a physical form as well. Most of them… just don't know it yet."

A familiar face popped up in my mind and I hastily demanded, "What about Ryou Bakura? I saw him here, too."

Malik averted his eyes and bit his lip. "He must be one of the anchors. I've seen him around, as well."

"Do you think he's my anchor? I mean, he saved my life… I'm pretty sure…" The memory was still fuzzy in my mind, but his face was clear as day, and although I couldn't remember what he did exactly, I could remember the urgency and the dependence I felt.

Malik gave me an apologetic smile and shrugged. "Probably. I don't know. I think he might be one of the more self-aware anchors though. He was helping out another one of us when I first saw him." His eyes darkened and he looked down. "She was a little girl… Three years old."

My heart sunk to the bottom of my gut. I hadn't given much thought to the others who were brought here, and I had always assumed they were all around my age or older, but the vision of a little girl in _this place_ , all alone… It made me want to find her and keep her from harm, as terrified as I was for my own safety.

"Anyway, you up for going in there yet?" he asked me, bringing my attention back to the dark and perilous gorge before us. 'Yet'? Maybe I wasn't as good at hiding my uneasiness as I thought.

My stomach was performing an entire gymnastic routine inside of me, but we couldn't just stand there. "I guess so. Just… stay with me so I don't get lost."

He chuckled, showing me a flawless row of teeth. Dental hygiene was very important to me, to be honest. Or maybe I was just laying it on a bit thick with the admiration. "Sure thing. It looks like a one way path to me, but if you're worried, how about this: at every intersection, we take the right? That way, if either of us lags behind, we know which way to take."

I nodded, goosebumps rising on the back of my neck in anxiety. "Sounds good. I just hope it doesn't come to that."

The gorge was a claustrophobic lair of nightmares. The two mountains standing tall at either side were made of dark gravel-like dirt which refused to let even a sliver of light into the canyon. I felt like an ant crawling through a tiny crack. Looking up, I couldn't even get a small glimpse of the sun. It smelled like dust and dead things, too, which made me all the more restless as we walked.

What made it even more terrifying was the death-like quiet all around. Malik wasn't saying anything, and neither was I, for fear that we would miss something like a telltale sign of impending doom. I didn't want to die. I mean, I was in a coma, so I was already teetering on the edge as is.

"Are you alright?" Malik asked in a hushed voice. In the darkness, the shape of his head turned to face me, and I involuntarily stumbled towards him to the point where I was practically leaning against him. His gauntlet brushed against my elbow and I blushed, thankful for the darkness that hid my face.

"I'm fine. A bit scared," I admitted. "I hope this thing ends soon."

The sound of his shuddering sigh echoed all over and he replied, "Me too."

After he spoke, I heard something accompany his echo, like low whispers. Putting a finger to my lips, I gave him a meaningful glance and saw him react by holding his breath and nodding. I strained my hearing to get a clear indication as to what those sounds were.

_Big brother, come find me… I'm all alone. It's scary._

"Amane?" I mouthed, earning a puzzled look from Malik. Grabbing on to his wrist, I began to move us forward.

"What did you hear?"

"A voice… one that I've heard before," I informed him. I was beginning to feel a bit sick.

We rushed through the canyon, my legs almost moving robotically, pushing me towards the source of the voice. I wasn't sure why… but then again, I wasn't sure of many things nowadays.

"Are you sure we should be going towards this voice?" Malik asked me, not even bothering to keep his voice down; there wasn't much of a point what with our heavy footsteps on the dry ground echoing all around us.

"Yes," I replied breathlessly and without a second thought.

The farther in we went, the wider the trench stretched and the greener the ground became. We were getting close to the end and making our way to the other side. The scent of fresh grass and flowers began to mingle with the scent of dust and we could feel a breeze run through our hair.

Before I could finally emerge, I felt something tug me back and turned around to find Malik giving me a concerned expression. "Wait. Did you hear that?"

In my haste, I hadn't been paying attention to the sounds around me, but after a moment's silence, I heard it. A dull thud resonated around us and it seemed to be coming from the gorge's exit. The potential threat was like acid under my skin, paralyzing me and reducing me to a meek mess of a person.

Malik grunted and grabbed both of my arms, forcing me to face him. "Lorna, you need to Transmogrify right now."

"T-Trans… morgi… What?" I asked, looking up at the solemn expression on his face.

"We… all of us… have the ability to Transmogrify in this realm. It means we can morph with our spirit being and gain its abilities in order to survive out here," he explained slowly, though his words could have been gibberish for all I could comprehend at that moment. "This armor that I'm wearing," he continued, nodding at his getup, "It's from my spirit creature, and I can use its abilities to protect myself."

"A-And… how do I find my spirit creature?" I asked.

He sighed. "I'm not sure… I Transmogrified involuntarily when I was put in great danger, but try to remember… maybe you've done it before. If you have then…"

From the back of my mind, the vision from the boiling hot pond came to me. If Transmogrification meant what I thought it did, then perhaps I actually _had_ done it before. I could recall the feel of it: the thick outer skin, the weightlessness, the power pulsing throughout my body, the electricity at my finger tips.

"You're doing it!" I heard him say as a flash of white blinded me.

My eyes were burning and blood vessels were contracting at my temples. I opened my mouth to scream, but only a weak puff of air came out along with a quiet moan. I could feel myself being held by someone and my hands reached out for the nearest solid object to grab.

And just like that, the large growing balloon of tension was popped, deflating pathetically and returning to me my sight and my peace of mind. I took in a deep breath, filling in my lungs, and opened my eyes.

Malik was holding me up, preventing me from falling to the ground. My face reddened and I spoke, still trying to regulate my breath, "What just happened?"

He helped steady me and let go of me as soon as I was capable of standing on my own. "Look at yourself," he told me, his face a mixture of surprise and content.

Heeding his words, I examined myself, only to find that I was wearing _much_ more than the simple hospital gown I had been in earlier. My entire body was covered in thick silver that contoured around my entire body like it was made for me… and it probably was. At each of my joints, holding the armor together, were long, colored strips of light -violet, red, green. The silver coating was also covered in crystals that beautifully reflected the light from the end of the tunnel. I held up one of my hands to examine the clawed gauntlet I now possessed, testing it with quiet fascination.

"It's pretty impressive," Malik remarked, smirking at me. "I wonder what it does."

The mere thought of having powers made my gut explode with the sensation of thousands of frantic butterflies. My eyes went to Malik's face as he extended his arm out towards the exit of the canyon, watching me expectantly. "Let's go check out that noise then."

_Ryou… where are you?_

The expression on Malik's face changed abruptly. "Hey! I think I just heard that voice."

I pursed my lips. "It's getting closer."

We pushed on ahead, entering the forest on the other side. It was almost identical to the one that we had been in before the canyon and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that we accidentally went backwards. My silver and his gold were the only colors interrupting the monotonous green and brown surrounding us.

Along with the whispers the grass made as we passed through it, we could hear the pleading girl speaking with even more desperation than before. I could see a pulsing light in the distance every time she spoke.

Again, Malik pulled me back against him, stopping me in my tracks before we could reach the source of the voice. "I heard those footsteps again, Lorna. Be careful."

I turned to look at him and nodded in understanding. I still didn't know how my powers worked, so I suppose Leeroy Jenkins-ing into the grove ahead wasn't such a good idea. "Thanks," I told him with a small grin.

We slowed down our steps, keeping our ears open and ready to catch the slightest of noises. The soft thudding that Malik had mentioned began to come more frequently and the girl's voice began to warp like a broken record.

We stopped in our tracks, listening to the footsteps, and sure enough, their source found us waiting. A large creature stepped in front of us, some kind of large animal, towering above us at almost double my height. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but it seemed like a mix between a koala and a kangaroo, and it was wearing a purple gold-trimmed vest with bright red sneakers and matching red boxing gloves.

In the time that we were both gaping at it, we missed it speaking to us. "Wh-What?" Malik stammered, staring up at it in alarm.

The creature put one of its hands on its hip and tilted its head to the side almost in boredom. "You two are goin' the wrong way," it told us in a gruff and distinctly Australian accent that made me question my sanity for a brief moment. It raised its second arm and thrust its thumb behind it. "That's where the realm o' the dead is. No use goin' _there_."

"Are you a Gatekeeper or…" Malik asked it, finding his voice long before I managed to find my own.

The creature moved its hand to scratch its snout and grunted. "Yeah. Name's Oz," he told us. "If you're lookin' to go back to the realm of the livin', I'm your guy."

"'Au-zee'?" I repeated under my breath.

"Don't wear it out," it told me, turning its sharp gaze towards me. "Anyway, this place ain't safe for you, so you need to hurry on outta here."

_Please don't leave me again. Please._

The voice was sobbing now and I felt my heart tug.

"Ignore it."

Startled, I looked up at Oz. "What?"

"I said 'Ignore it', kid. That ain't nothin' but trouble," it said sternly. It put its hands together and began to crouch down. Its gaze travelled around the wood, surveying the trees and the dirt, and after it was satisfied, it turned to the right. Making Malik and I both jump, it punched the ground with one of its gloved fists, causing the dirt beneath to collapse, almost like that pile of dirt only existed to cover the hole beneath. Oz turned to the left after that, punching a similar hole on the other side.

"What's that for?" I asked, watching its actions quizzically.

"For jumpin' o' course," it replied.

"Jumping?" Malik repeated in disbelief.

It nodded its furry head. "One for light and one for divinity."

On cue, beams of light shot from each hole; one white and the other gold. I suppose it went without saying which hole was for which person, but I was still reluctant.

"Now go on. Get outta here," it ordered impatiently, tapping its foot swiftly.

I gave Malik a look as if to ask whether or not he trusted this, and all I got in reply was an uncertain shrug and a look that said, "Let's just do it." We had nothing to lose by jumping and nothing to gain by staying in that god-forsaken forest.

* * *

I groaned upon getting up. This habit of waking up in a different place than where I went to sleep (or in my case, _fell unconscious_ ) was getting very out of hand. I was in another room, apparently still on the blimp, but Sun and Zephyr were nowhere to be seen.

"Lorna… are you awake?" a groggy voice asked me.

I shot up, searching for Malik, and found myself face to face with another blond boy instead. "M-Marik?"

Fuck.


	26. The Hunger, the Healing

According to Marik, a recess between duels was in effect. So far, Ryou Bakura and Odion had already been disqualified, meaning that there was probably no point in acting like Marik was really some nice guy named Namu, which took some weight off of my shoulders, because I couldn't lie for shit. And for the life of me, I couldn't remember who was going to duel next. I could at least recall who dueled who; it was hard to forget really, considering what Yami Marik was about to do to Mai during their duel.

We made our way to the blimp's lounge as Marik awkwardly informed me of what I had missed -not sure why, but whatever floats his boat. I didn't know why I had woken up in his room. Had he rescued me from Sun and Zephyr? If so, then why? How did he even know where I was? I tried to ask, but I didn't know where to start, and if I'm being honest, I was slightly terrified of him. He was just a kid, but he was capable of starting an entire duelist mercenary group -not to mention the fact that he didn't shy away from murder in his _coercive_ methods. Therefore, I wasn't so inclined to start questioning him.

I felt my heart get stuck in my throat as Marik began to push open the door to the lounge, the thought of my friends all being out there making me nervous. "W-Wait!" I exclaimed, grabbing his hand out of impulse and regretting the decision immediately after.

"What?" he asked, frowning at me, but not looking particularly scary, so it was all good -I think.

"I…" I struggled to put it into words. _I can't be seen with you._

Marik rolled his eyes, stepping away from the door and gesturing towards it with a flourish of his hand. "I'll wait a few minutes before following you in," he reassured me in a disinterested tone.

_Smart kid._ At least he could decode my strange language of unfinished sentences and weird facial expressions -a great feat, honestly. "Th-Thanks…" I stammered, pushing through the door, eager to get away from him and back to my friends.

The lounge was quite large considering it was in the middle of a giant blimp… _Well,_ I couldn't say it was _in the middle_ of the blimp, seeing as I didn't know the exact layout of the blimp, but it was probably somewhere there. Probably. The room was split into one small area, with a stage and a podium, and another larger area with comfortable-looking sofas and tables, set almost like a very fancy café. Although it was in no way shabby, it was certainly simplistic, so clearly Kaiba had allocated most of his expenses to the actual duel simulation machinery. In spite of everything, I was really looking forward to actually seeing said machinery in action, but the thought of someone almost dying while using it kinda stabbed all the fun out of it.

Reclining in one of the sofas was a slender blonde woman that I had never seen before, and I could only assume it was Mai Valentine. She was sitting alone with one long leg crossed over the other as she looked over her cards. It was very likely that she was coming up with a strategy for her next duel and it kinda sucked that she wasn't going to win, and even worse that she was going to end up comatose for a while, too. Hey, maybe we could start a club, maybe even have some jackets made and stuff. I would have to work on a slogan for us. I'd let Odion join in, too. If I remembered correctly, he was a pretty chill guy when he wasn't obeying his evil step-brother's every command.

Mai was the only person in the room who _wasn't_ a KaibaCorp staff member, so I tentatively approached her, my bare feet making soft tapping noises on the smooth floor. I wasn't exactly stealthy, however, so she whipped her head around at the sound of my approach, with a mixture of surprise and confusion on her face -and just for the record: she was much prettier than I had expected her to be, causing me to temporarily lose my voice in my throat.

"You!" she exclaimed. She recognized me? "You're that girl… the dead one."

Oh… so _that_ was my reputation? A milkshake like that probably wasn't going to bring all the girls to my yard if the terror creeping into Mai's face was any indication. "I'm not really dead, you know," I corrected her lamely, not even sure where to start. Maybe asking about Joey and everyone would be a good idea, so I did just that.

"They were looking for _you_ , last time I saw them. They went to see you in the sick ward after Joey's duel and you were just _gone_ ," she explained.

"Yeah… I kinda got lost," I told her, looking down at my bare feet. Man, my toenails could've used a clipping, but now was not the time to worry about that. "Do you know where I can find them now?"

Mai huffed and pursed her lips in thought, placing her cards on the table and then crossing her arms. "Your best bet would be to wait for them here, I guess…" she said, nodding towards the sofa that was placed on the opposite side of the coffee table from Mai's seat. "If you don't mind my asking, though… How exactly do you go from dead to up and walking?" she asked, going back to her cards and going through them. "I mean, _obviously_ you aren't dead, but _something_ made everyone think so."

I made a noncommittal gesture, putting my hands in my lap sheepishly and tilting my head down until my ear was touching my shoulder. "Mm… you see… that is a _good_ question, and I'd love to answer it, but the thing is that I _don't_ actually know the answer to that myself. All I know is I've gone unconscious so many times today against my will…" I lifted my head and looked over to the alarmed expression that lit up Mai's violet eyes. "Long story," I said dismissively.

" _I'll_ say. Sounds like it was a rough day…" she remarked, going back to analyzing one of her cards.

The door to the lounge softly clicked open and I saw Mai turn her head, her brow tightening in a glare, her shoulders rising defensively. Something told me our favorite Egyptian dickwad had just walked into the room. I didn't want to meet his eyes so I simply looked down at my lap, absentmindedly counting fingers. Eventually, she averted her gaze, slowly unwinding her shoulders and settling into her seat again, and she picked up another card off of the table, as though nothing had happened.

Unsure of what to say and uninclined to bother her while she prepared for an important duel, I simply pulled my legs up onto the chair and hugged them, noting the bandages that were loosely wrapped around them. It only just occurred to me that I was supposed to be completely unable to walk, much less lift my legs up and bend them against my body. Did that somehow change?

Idly, I ran my hand down one of my legs, both testing the flesh there for any pain and searching for the end of the bandage. My leg almost jerked under the strange sensation -one that felt like numbness and ticklishness in one. No pain, no ache, no discomfort. Hurriedly, I felt all around my leg searching for the end of the wrapping and nearly tore it off, revealing nearly clear tan skin. My leg looked almost exactly the way it did before, save for a bit of faded layer of scarring running up my leg like a gradient with the most prominent scarring at the bottom near my feet. It was better than I had expected, but they weren't pretty, and I was certain I wouldn't ever be able to wear short-shorts again.

"How'd you get those?" Mai remarked, startling me out of my thoughts. Her eyes were fixed on my single exposed leg, making me feel a bit self-conscious and tuck my leg under me. "Oh! I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, covering her mouth. "I just… You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

I couldn't find a voice to answer her with, like a bad dream where you want to call for help, but you can't. A sense of shame came over me and I nodded solemnly, trying to avoid eye contact. "It's okay… I'd rather not."

At the thought of my scars, Viola popped up in my mind, as she had done so many times today, and I saw my final attack. Still keeping my head low, I spoke up again. "Um… Is- Is Téa…here, too?" I almost said "alive" but stopped myself.

She looked genuinely surprised that I'd singled Téa out as she asked, "Téa? Yeah, she is." I saw her crane her neck up just as the sound of shuffling feet filled the once quiet lounge. "There she is, actually," she informed me.

She didn't need to tell me twice. In about three seconds, I had turned around and was on my knees on the chair, peeking up from over the back cushion. There were four familiar faces and two I only vaguely recognized, and as I made to raise a hand and wave them over, the chair wobbled beneath me. I was powerless to stop it as it fell over onto its back, so I simply clung to the cushion for dear life as it hit the ground with a clatter.

The group stopped in their tracks, each of them giving me their own personal quizzical looks. I must have been quite the sight, kneeling on my knees with my ass in the air (likely traumatizing Mai forever) and the thin hospital gown barely covering a thing, seeming more like the star of a doctor-patient porno than the less than attractive teenage girl I actually was.

"Ow," I whimpered.

A rough hand grabbed my shoulder and helped me up into an upright position. Suddenly, my vision was filled with a smirking face that made my heart both melt and speed up to at least twenty times the speed it was supposed to go. "Careful there," Joey said, barely holding in a guffaw. "Are you okay?" His blond bangs were drooping over his eyes, making it significantly easier to look away from them.

"Physically, yeah… But I don't think my dignity will ever recover," I replied, letting out a nervous giggle. I was pretty sure my face was darkening in a blush at the amused look he was giving me -as if I needed anymore reasons to be mortified.

Before Joey could reply, three other faces shoved their way into my vision, but all I could see was Téa. I felt my throat clog up and my eyes burn. All I could remember was an aching regret and I threw my arms around her, nearly shoving the boys out of the way as I did so. "God, Téa… I'm so glad you're okay," I bawled into her blouse.

Strong arms returned the hug and her head buried itself into my shoulder. "Aw, Lorna," she said in a shaking voice. "You're going to make me cry, too." She laughed away the tension and fear I felt like some sort of magical healing fairy.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," I whispered, all my emotions and fears coming out in one huge sob. I didn't kill her. She was alive. _I didn't kill her_.

Her hand softly moved in circles on the small of my back. "It's okay, sweetie. Shh…"

Those words sounded like they had just come out of my wildest fantasy, but I wasn't still dreaming, was I? I pulled away from her, wiping my tears on the back of my hand. "How is it okay, Téa? You almost died, and it was _my_ fault. Téa, I almost killed you. That's not okay. How are you fine with any of this?"

Téa shook her head with a reassuring smile on her lips. "We noticed that you were possessed by Marik. You couldn't control that. I can't and won't blame you for that. We all know what he's capable of."

Her response completely baffled me and I couldn't find a single word to say in response, so I simply cocked my head to the side, wiping away tears that were still coming down. "Marik possessed me? When did that happen?" I would have liked to think that if Marik had _anything_ to do with my duel with Viola, I'd have at least noticed.

"During your duel with that Viola chick," Joey clarified and I saw Tristan nod his head.

"Y-You don't remember?" Yugi asked seriously, his sharp eyes burning a hole into my forehead. Wait. Was this the Pharaoh?

My expression clearly wasn't one of understanding and realization and the group could see that, so Téa held my shoulders firmly and helped me to my feet. "Let's not discuss this on the ground," she said. "A lot happened with us while you were in the hospital… and I'm sure _you_ have some stuff to explain, too."

* * *

We were all seated around Mai's table -my friends and I, in addition to Mai and the two new people, who had been introduced to me as Serenity, Joey's little sister, and Duke, the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters and another friend of theirs. They had all just finished retelling the tale of Yugi's first encounter with Marik, in which Marik had absolutely annihilated one of his servants in a most literal sense, reducing him to nothing but dust and blood. I wasn't sure whether to say "ouch" or "ew" in light of that kind of information.

Yugi had elected to let the Pharaoh retell the story, I could tell by his intonation and his certainty that this sort of thing was probably not the most disturbing or explicit thing he had ever seen in life or in death, but it was most likely still in his top three, which was kinda sad. The Pharaoh needed a vacation.

What struck me as odd, however, was the fact that I was absolutely positive that this hadn't actually happened in the show. I may have have remembered very little of Yu-Gi-Oh, but something told me that graphic and horrifying mutilation was not the sort of thing that happened normally. If things were going differently, was it because of me? Was something going on with Marik that we didn't understand? They said that Marik possessed me and almost got Téa killed, and I was starting to seriously consider the possibility. I would never let her die, even if my own life was on the line, would I?

_No,_ I would _not_ doubt myself. I didn't need that. Not now. I had too much to worry about to wonder whether I was secretly a heartless monster who would murder her friends in a flash if it meant she got out alive.

However, that would also mean that Marik was the voice in my head, which was completely impossible as far as I was concerned. There was no way in fucking hell that _he_ was the one who was speaking to me the whole time. Still it was certainly possible that there were two voices in my head -one that gave me less-than-sagely advice and acted like an asshole, and one that tried to make me commit double murder by card game. It was terrifying that I couldn't tell the difference between them.

In return, I went ahead and told them as much as I could understand from what had happened to me from the moment I passed out after attacking Téa to the moment they found me, leaving out the part where I had woken up in Marik's room. I told them about how I woke up in a morgue and was broken out of it by Bakura. I tried to make the zombie part make sense, too, but I simply gave up and dismissed it as part of my imagination. I mean, it was all very ridiculous. Zombies in the Inbetween: plausible; zombies in real life: not so plausible.

I then mentioned Zephyr and Sun and how they had suffocated me in order to force me into a state of unconsciousness, how I had woken up in a place called "The Inbetween" Most of the people present were shocked and fascinated, but I could have sworn I saw Serenity look down and hug herself at the mention of talking duel monsters and bizarre alternate realms. Perhaps that was my imagination, too.

"You're saying Bakura was there?" the Pharaoh questioned, leaning into the table. "In this _Inbetween_?"

I nodded reluctantly. "I think he was. I mean, I remember him being there with me, but I can't remember what we were doing. Then I was somewhere else and I met another one of those people who came to your dimension with me."

He nodded silently, resting his elbow on his knee and stroking his chin thoughtfully. If anyone I could trust would know anything about the Inbetween, it had to be the Pharaoh.

_**Ouch. I'm still here, y'know.** _

_Don't push me. You might be Marik for all I know._

_**I'm not. Like I said. I'm just your friendly neighborhood disembodied voice. At your service.** _

_That's exactly what_ Marik _would say._

_**Well, well, look at you, exercising caution and being paranoid. Way to go, Lorna. Just don't forget who saved your ass over and over again.** _

Deciding to ignore it, I directed my attention towards my friends who were considering the Inbetween amongst each other. The Pharaoh, naturally, was at the center of the discussion, as the only individual with reliable knowledge on the matter.

"It's very familiar to me," he informed them. "The Inbetween… like something I might have heard about in my past life. Sadly, I can't recall anything important," he said apologetically. "However, the term does makes me uneasy, as though I may have heard something sinister about it before. And from what you've told us about it, my feeling doesn't seem that far from the truth."

I was a bit disappointed that he couldn't remember anything, but _I_ was one to talk, especially since I couldn't remember half of the shit that went down in the Inbetween. It still vexed me that all that came up in my mind about the time I spent with Ryou was his voice and his unconscious face. In fact, I probably even had my timeline wrong, too, but that was hardly important if I couldn't even make sense of anything that happened there.

"Hey, Lorna," Tristan piped up. He was hunched over in his seat with his hand over his mouth, a finger idly scratching his nose. "Did you ever figure out what was going on with Rex?"

_Rex_? Oh, yeah… _Something_ happened with him, too. With all that had gone on, I had almost forgotten that little shit.

"Wait. Rex?" Joey asked, taken aback. Had Tristan not told them? I had truly expected everything I had discussed with him to become public knowledge by then. Perhaps I should have placed more faith in him. "When d'ya meet _that_ little weasel?"

I bit my lip and shrugged. "I dueled him before Viola. Took a locator card from him, too."

"That's not _all_ that happened, though," Tristan added, planting his hands on his knees and leaning in like he was about to tell a scary story, and maybe the story he was about to tell could have been considered scary. "Lorna kinda hallucinated in the middle of it. I found her in the middle of a panic attack or something, and I had to talk her down before she could really duel."

"A-A _panic attack_?" Téa exclaimed, alarmed and concerned. Her arm went around my shoulders and squeezed me gently. "What happened?" I wanted to feel reassured now that her hand was tenderly stroking my shoulder, but all I felt was choked up and uncertain.

"I-It was…" All eyes were on me and I felt like a mouse trapped in a circle of lions. Part of me wanted to just say it was nothing -that I was just seeing things, and it was all stupid, impossible and childish. "T-Tristan…" I whimpered, trying to find a way out. _He_ knew the story, so what was stopping him from stepping in for me?

I found refuge from the person I least expected. His voice snatched all the eyes away from my timid face and my wide frightful eyes. "Guys, I don't think you should push her. She doesn't look alright." Duke Devlin, the raven-haired entrepreneur I had only just been introduced to, was a veritable godsend.

Immediately, I felt Téa's arm retract, and as my muscles began to relax, I realized how upright I had been sitting. "I'm sorry," I whispered, feeling like an idiot. I could have told them to lay off myself… I should have told them myself; yet here was this guy I didn't even know stepping up for me like I was some silly little girl. I'll have you know I was at least one year older than every single person there except for maybe Mai… So _why_ was I always like this?

"Nah… I'm sorry…" Tristan replied, giving me an apologetic smile and a chuckle. "I saw first-hand what happened and I should have known better than to force you to talk about it."

I sighed and shook my head, grinning wryly. "Apology accepted, ya stupid dickpimple," I teased, wringing my wrist.

He flailed dramatically and let out an exaggerated gasp, leaning back in his seat and gripping the arms of his chair tightly. In a choked voice, he protested, "There are _children_ here!" His other hand swept over to Serenity, narrowly missing her face.

It took Joey a minute to realize that his sister was being talked about, and after a comical moment's pause, he snapped at Lorna. "Oh, yeah! Be all polite and stuff around my baby sis! She's delicate, y'know." Despite his harsh tone, he gave me a cheeky grin and I couldn't help but giggle at the look on his face; he was a master of facial expressions. He pinched his shy sister's cheeks, making her let out a high pitched complaint and shove him away.

_What an adorable fucking goober…_

A loud squeaking noise infiltrated the silence and the quiet giggles, and with it, came a searing pain travelling from the bottom of my gut to the top of my gullet. I winced sharply and felt myself lose my balance for less than a second. Needless to say, if they didn't know who the source of that noise was, my less than subtle reaction tipped them off.

"Lorna?" That was Yugi's soft voice -it seemed like the Pharaoh took his leave. "You didn't, by any chance, forget to eat today, did you?"

I bowed my head pensively, trying to recall the last time I ate, and what immediately came to mind were the granola bars I had put in my bag before heading out in the morning, which I _hadn't_ actually gotten a chance to eat, if I even intended to eat them. I had skipped breakfast that morning, too. The thought of having breakfast at the Muto residence made my stomach cry out in anguish, maybe even breaking into its own soulful rendition of "Rolling in the Deep" to mourn its loss.

"Mmm… I drank a mocha latte a few hours ago?" I offered sheepishly - _and subsequently upchucked yesterday's dinner_ , I wanted to say; however, I _was_ in the presence of Joey's _delicate_ sister, so I tried to contain my vulgarity.

If I were to be completely frank with you, though, I was just as surprised as anyone that I hadn't eaten at least enough food for the entire population of Domino City that day, as was my usual serving size. I guess going to hell and back was a bit more time consuming than I had originally estimated. Go figure...

"Hey, then we oughtta ask the staff if there are leftovers from that buffet they had a while ago," Joey suggested, getting to his feet and flexing his arms. Those arms…

_God dammit. Lorna, you dirty old man._

"Um, Joey," Yugi's voice called out, snapping me out of whatever the fuck I was just doing. "Mai's duel is about to start. Do you think we'll have time?"

That was when Mai finally spoke up. "Oh, you guys! I'll be fine!" she protested with a humble smile on her face. "Unlike you, I don't need the ' _power of friendship_ ' or whatever you guys do for Yugi." she mocked, miming air quotes. Then, pointing a finger at her head, she added, "All _I_ need to win this duel is right up here."

All aboard the bullshit train straight to the Shadow Realm! None of her friends looked convinced either; in fact, the _bullshit_ was so strong with this one, we could've start an organic fertilizer brand supplied by Mai alone.

"Mai, we know you're a great duelist, but you're going up against _Marik_ and his Egyptian God card. That won't be easy," Yugi told her earnestly. "We're not going leave your side."

Joey relaxed his stance and leaned forward, resting his arms on the top of the chair he had been sitting in. "Yeah, Yug's right! We're not letting _anything_ happen to you."

_Right…_ So this was _hardly_ the time to mention this, but I had completely forgotten about Joey's less than subtle crush on Mai. I have no real reason for mentioning this; I just thought you should know.

_Ahem. Moving on._

_**Yes,** _ **please** _**!** _

_Shush, you. You're getting talkative._

_**What of it?** _

_If I didn't know any better, I'd say you enjoyed my company. It's okay to admit that we're_ kinda _friends._

_**I detest that accusation. Besides, I'm a non-physical entity. I don't need friends.** _

_Right. Keep telling yourself that._ Everyone was still discussing Mai's upcoming duel, so I figured why not antagonize Voicey a bit. It didn't answer me after that, though. _Asshole._

When I tuned back into the conversation, Duke was speaking. "Y'know, I'm not a close friend of Mai's like you guys," he said, twirling a strand of his hair in between his thumb and forefinger. "I could show your friend, Lorna, to the kitchens and get her taken care of while you show your support during the duel. And we'll be back just in time to see her bring that Marik creep's life points down to zero." _Ahaha, getting your hopes up a lil' bit high, aren't you, Dukey-boy?_ I kept my mouth shut, for as long as there was the prospect of food, then I was on board with anything they had to say.

Still, the fact that I would be keeping him from watching Mai's duel ate at me. Mai was going to need all the help she could get, and rather than help, as I had originally intended, I was only making things worse by giving her one less friend to support her. Circumstance was turning out to be the biggest hindrance for me as far as using my foresight was going. I could've probably found the kitchen on my own if I asked the staff, so really, nobody had to go with me, but I couldn't bring myself to voice that. As selfish as it was, I wanted to have a familiar face with me, some kind of guarantee that I wouldn't fall unconscious and end up in the Inbetween again, away from the people I trusted.

Everyone seemed to be considering this option very carefully, and with a nod, Yugi, the apparent spokesperson of the group, replied, "Are you sure, Duke?"

Duke flashed me an effortless and genuine grin, almost as though he could sense the two hungry and angry Lornas shouting at each other in my head. "Hey, I'm not about to let a lady starve," he said smoothly. "Besides, I need a break from all these duels."

Ah, I may not have remembered this guy too well, but I was starting to like him more and more…

"Try not to miss me too much, Serenity." He winked suggestively at Joey's sister within ass-kicking distance of Joey, which was one of the boldest things I had ever seen a person do, but it also reminded me of which character he was.

Well, this was going to be pleasant.


	27. A New Mystery, a New Martyr

Quiet shuffling of feet and an awkward sigh that sounded like it would have been followed by words; those were the only sounds in the corridor leading towards the blimp's kitchen. The metallic walls seemed claustrophobic, but definitely not as claustrophobic as they were when I was wandering aimlessly with Zephyr, my mind barely with me and my vision faltering. I was startlingly awake now and it felt good -better than I had felt in what seemed like weeks and what was actually a single day. I wasn't sure what time it was, but I could only estimate that it had been at least 24 hours since I had last felt like a real live human being.

"Sorry," I told the boy chaperoning me, trying to break the ice between us.

He seemed surprised that I was even acknowledging him. "Huh? Uh... oh, um why?"

I let out a difficult breath and ran a hand through my hair. Something seemed different about it... not that I actually felt like worrying about that when I had... say... a psychopath potentially using an ancient Egyptian artifact to control my mind. "You... should be with your friends." It was a half-hearted 'apology' as I had no intention of getting rid of my guarantee that nothing weird would happen to me, but I still felt a tiny bit guilty.

"Aw jeez," Duke chuckled breathlessly. He looked like he had been expecting me to apologize. "You don't have to apologize. I can't let a lady -"

"Don't give me that," I interrupted him, blushing slightly at being called a lady of all things. "You can cut the act with me."

He grinned, his emerald eyes sparkling. "What act?"

I let out a small huff, and looked away. "The whole chivalry whatever… I mean, I get you're trying to be nice, but I've had enough of people lying to me for one day."

He frowned, twirling a strand of his hair. "Sorry," he replied sheepishly, looking almost like he'd been slapped. "I don't know what happened to you today, but if you need to talk..."

I gave him an incredulous look. "But you don't know me."

Duke looked taken aback and a bit shy, which was somewhat uncharacteristic of him. "Y-Yeah, I know... but you look like you need someone to talk to." It looked like that wasn't exactly what he meant to say; the suave and infallible Duke Devlin seemed to be struggling to find the right words to say, not that I was making it easy.

I felt my gut twist in remorse. I _was_ kinda being a dick to him. Zorc would have been proud of me... Nah, more likely than not he wouldn't give a single solitary fuck, and if I was lucky (if we were _all_ lucky) he was in the Shadow Realm after a humiliating defeat to... Yami... Marik... who... who... _who…_

_Yami. Marik._

Wait.

_Waaaiiiit._

My stomach was doing flip-flops (which, given the amount of chub and flip-flop room I had, wasn't such a difficult feat) and my mind went back to the significantly _sane_ Marik that I woke up to earlier. He was supposed to be a sadistic murderer; if I could recall anything in this season, it was that. Yes, I could definitely remember Joey dueling Odion… and something about the Winged Dragon of Ra… and Marik completely losing it… and for some reason this didn't seem to be what happened. Something wasn't right.

A loud squeak brought me out of my bleak thoughts and back to the real world where Duke was trying not to make eye contact with me in fear of invoking my wrath. God dammit, Stomach! I was _trying_ to have a moment of revelation -god _dammit_. My body wasn't exactly in tip-top shape, however, and my brain, being just as out-of-shape as my body was, wasn't exactly up to running that extra mile, especially not on a stomach so cold, empty, and barren that it felt like having Zorc's heart attached to my intestines instead - _ba dum tsss_.

"You okay?" he asked. In front of us was a closed metal door, resembling most of the doors I'd seen -nothing very noteworthy aside from the fancy nameplate on the side that read "Kitchen" He pushed the door open, placing his hand on the small of my back and ushering me in.

"In which sense?" I asked, with a nervous giggle. I wondered where all the staff were; the place was completely devoid of human life. Hey, the less people there to see me wolf down twice my body mass in food, the better; am I right or am I right? "Sorry," I told him. This time he didn't answer. "I'm really just... coming off more bitter than I usually am. Normally, I'm somewhat more pleasant."

Duke smiled. "I can tell. I'll try not to be _too_ offended."

"There's nobody in here," I noted, taking a look around. Shouldn't there have been kitchen staff on duty?

"Hello?" Duke called out.

I watched Duke walk over to the long counter sitting against the far right wall, where there seemed to be an assortment of metal containers -you know, the kinds they used in buffets. "I think I can guess how you're feeling in the physical sense. Hungry, right?" he said, lifting the lid off of something that looked particularly tantalizing.

I grinned at him. "How did you guess?"

* * *

I had to hand it to Kaiba (and his money… _mostly_ his money); that food was like the fourth of July in my stomach -that is to say… it was colorful and delicious, but my abdomen felt like someone had just detonated several small bombs and tried to send it to the golden land. I only had two refills… maybe three.

"Feeling better?" Duke asked as he put my dishes in the sink, slyly smirking at my slouching form.

I watched him with my head against the table, clutching my stomach in pain. "No."

Like a teeny, traitorous dagger to my bloated gut, he let out a small chuckle, which sounded a lot like a short exhale, but don't worry, guys -I know when someone's laughing at me. "And uhh, what about earlier? You know, that stuff with Marik and…" he trailed off. He was done with the cleaning up and was coming back to my side.

In truth, I wasn't really sure how I felt about that stuff with Marik, and I wasn't sure how to feel. I could have dismissed it as nothing because there was no reason whatsoever to suspect Marik; if he had had anything to do with this, I would have known. I could also have taken it incredibly seriously, suspecting every single voice in my head and every shadow in my peripherals. The latter, however, sounded incredibly stressful, so much so that it made my heart palpitate at the mere thought. Deciding to do what I did best and completely procrastinate thinking about this, I changed the subject completely.

"Listen, Duke," I told him, sitting up straight and letting him help me to my feet. "Thank you."

A warm smile graced his lips. "C'mon now, Lorna. Don't mention it."

I shook my head and the two of us began heading out of the kitchen. "No, Duke I mean it. Not just for this… but for before. When they put me on the spot like that… I honestly felt like I was going to puke. And you completely saved my life back there."

He looked taken aback for a slight moment, but the natural smile came back to his face right after that. "You don't need to thank me for that," he urged. "I know a damsel in distress when I see one."

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Are we seriously doing that again?" I looked away from him, hoping and praying to… I don't know… Ra (?) -I was an atheist and my parents were pagans, so I would have to improvise- that I wasn't blushing. "You're telling me that it was pure chivalry?"

"If you want it to be," he offered and I didn't even need to look at the smug bastard to know that he was smirking at me. Nevertheless, I did look at him and my suspicions were right on the mark. One look at my face, however, told him that I was having none of it. He let out a long sigh and clicked his tongue. "Geez…" he grumbled. "If you really want to know… I've had enough panic attacks to know one when I see one."

"But I didn't -" I began.

"You would have if I hadn't said anything," he interrupted. "It starts out small, and then you're hyperventilating and shaking… It feels like everything is ending… like you're falling from a tall building, going faster and faster until…" He trailed off, his hand idly rubbing his elbow as he looked away from me.

I felt my skin crawl at the mental image. "Thank you," I repeated more softly than before, looking down at the ground, the wide, curious eyes of my friends flashing brightly in my mind's eye, and I shut my eyes tightly, as though that alone could make the memory go away. He might have been right.

There was a warm hand on my shoulder, as if sensing my unrest, it seems he meant to save me again. "Don't think too hard about it," he advised, his face looking more serious than I had seen it since we first met, and as quickly as the serious moment had started, it was over and he had the same arrogant leer from before. "Earlier, Téa told me to take you over to her room on the blimp. She said she had some clothes for you to borrow since you can't really stay in that hospital gown all night."

"Huh?" I was still out of it, trying to shake away the weird feeling I had gotten earlier and my brain was struggling to concentrate on his words.

"It's pretty cold out," he elaborated. "You'll freeze to death in that."

"That… sounds like a good idea," I breathed.

* * *

It was more quiet on my way to Téa's room; Duke was less talkative than my first impression led me to believe, and I guess that left me and my thoughts more alone than I would have liked. I was forced to confront them in that five minute walk: the doubts, the fears; the revelations, the mysteries.

To start out, my very first mystery was the duel disk. Someone planned this day out for me, and I was completely certain of that. I couldn't remember much about the woman who gave me the duel disk… She had bright green eyes and mesmerizing red lips, and I could still see them in my mind's eye, moving, telling me something.

" _Lorna."_

She said my name, but she said something else… at least I remembered her saying something else; a warning perhaps?

Those lips, however, I was almost certain I had seen not once, but twice.

_**Need help with that?** _

_Fuck off._

_**Nice. What happened to friendship and all that gross junk?** _

_I'm trying to think and you're distracting me._

_**You did see her twice, though.** _

_See who?_

_**Sun. You saw her twice.** _

Twice? I thought back to the last time I saw Sun, just before being drugged and sent to the Inbetween…

_**And the first time was when she gave you your duel disk last week.** _

_That was her? Wait. I remember you had some explaining to do!_

_**Yeah, and that's what I've been trying to do, but you keep shutting me up.** _

_Pfft. Like I have any control over whether or not you shut up_. I thought bitterly, trying not to let Duke catch me rolling my eyes at nothing. He already had enough reasons to turn around and walk slowly away from me, and I didn't need to give him any more.

_**Starting off. You're not the only one fell into a coma and ended up in Domino City.**_ It started with the most obvious bit and I suppose that was the best place to start. _**There were five others; one for each element: Light, dark, earth, wind, water, fire. You're light.**_

_Light? Is there some sort of criteria for how we were chosen?_

_**If there is, then I'm not aware of it. For now, let's call it random and figure out the Hows and the Whys later.** _

_Right._ I nodded discreetly and decided to pay attention to the real world for a couple of minutes as we were approaching a door with the words "Guest Wing" written on the nameplate. We were close to Téa's room.

Duke pointed out the room and gave me a friendly smile, which was a nice change from the flirtatious smirk that seemed to be one of his permanent facial features. "I'll be right outside if you need me," he told me as I stepped inside.

I put on a gracious face and replied, "It's okay, Duke. It's just clothes. They're not gonna try to kill me."

His face went abruptly solemn at those words. "From what I've heard, Marik doesn't need to be in the same room as you to control you. Just be careful."

Looking down at the ground sheepishly I mumbled. "Y-Yeah, you're right. Thanks. I'll try not to die."

"Please do."

I could feel my cheeks darken when I noted just how serious he sounded. "I ah… yes, I will…" I babbled as I fumbled with the door handle and practically lurched into the room as though I truly was possessed by Marik.

Shutting the door behind me, I assessed the area. I suppose not much assessing was needed, though, seeing as it was just like your average one-person hotel room. It wasn't very big, but definitely spacious. Téa had her things in a suitcase on the ground, neatly folded; it didn't seem like she had much time to unpack it with all the dueling and shadow games.

It didn't take me long to find my bag sitting on the table to the side, so at least I could count on Zorc to give me my stuff back. I remembered packing at least two changes of clothes in my backpack when I left the house, so there should have been at least one outfit left in there.

Slipping my arms out of the sleeves, I let the hospital gown fall to the floor. I then put on the simple striped t-shirt and short overalls, silently cursing the fact that my scars would be on display for everyone to see. I wasn't quite okay with seeing them myself, but to have other people look at them made me more than just a bit self-conscious.

_**Hey, if you squint, they're like badass tattoos…**_ Voice offered, the awkwardness in its tone almost audible.

_Not helping._

_**Sorry.** _

_So where were we?_ I asked it, deciding to change the topic as I started to slip on a pair of sneakers Téa had left out for me, which were _way_ more comfortable than the boots I had been wearing earlier.

_**The… ah… elements I guess. I'm not sure what they signify yet, but someone's gone to great lengths to get one of each. Also, for each of you, there's something called an Anchor… or should I say** _ **someone** _**. People from this world that you're tethered to in order to remain here.** _

_And mine is Bakura,_ I finished for him. It made sense after all.

_**Actually, no.** _

Well, I'd been wrong before. And I'm aware that's an understatement. Please don't say anything. I suppose I could just shut up and let the Voice do all the talking; after all I wasn't too good at logic apparently.

_**I'm not entirely certain who yours is yet, but I know the person tethered to Bakura is a young girl. I've seen her around the Inbetween, although I don't believe she's quite aware of what's going on.** _

_So she's not Sun or Zephyr then._ I noted.

_**I don't know much about them. I used to communicate with them, but they haven't been letting me in as of late. Not very wise of them, but it's ultimately their loss. I didn't like that "Doc" nickname of Zephyr's anyway.** _

_Aw, I thought it was cute… Doc._

_**Don't start with me, girl.** _

_Yeah, sorry. Not gonna happen again._

A surprisingly considerate soft rapping interrupted my thoughts. "Um… Lorna?" Duke's voice passed through the door. "You alright in there?"

_Shit._ I had taken a bit too long to come back out of the room. "Uh yeah, sorry. I'll be out in a second." I called out to him, rushing over to the mirror to check out the damage. I looked less dead than I had expected, but my hair looked weird for some reason. I turned my head around in different directions and tried see where it had changed. It looked like it was shorter in the back… I felt the edges of my hair from the nape of my neck to my cheek. I mean it wasn't very long to begin with, but I had clearly gotten an impromptu haircut. Could those weird flesh-eating demons have snagged on my hair during my duel? It was the only cause I could think of.

_So you got anything else to explain?_ I asked as I shook off my hair and tried to make it look less weird. I didn't get an answer from it.

* * *

It caught me off-guard just how cold it was on the roof of the blimp as Duke and I made our way into the dueling arena. I mean, Duke had warned me, but I didn't realize it would be nine-thousand degrees under zero. We saw our friends standing at the sidelines watching Mai intently. I shivered as I huddled at the back of the group, unsure of what had happened so far.

"Hey, you okay now?" Tristan asked, stepping towards me, a nervous Serenity in tow. He shrugged off his leather jacket, draping it around my shoulders.

I nodded stiffly. How many times had I been asked that? "Yeah… fine." I replied, and although it was the truth at the moment, it felt like a lie. I had been through too much to be just "fine" but what _could_ I say that hadn't already been said? I wrapped the jacket around myself appreciatively.

"You sure you're up to watching this duel? You were pretty out of it before," he told me. "I could walk you back to the infirmary or…"

"No," I shot back a bit too firmly. "I don't want to be by myself. Not anymore."

Tristan scoffed and grinned. "Like we'd let you stay there all by yourself. Don't worry. You're our friend, so you can trust us to keep any eye out for you."

_Like you kept an eye out for me while Viola tried to rip my skin off… or in the Inbetween._ I kept those thoughts to myself, but they still ate away at me.

"So how's the duel been so far?" I asked, gripping the jacket more tightly and trying to approach the rest of the group. Everyone looked like they were wound up to their limits and then some, so I could only guess things weren't looking too good. Of course, I already knew this. I couldn't have stopped it even if I tried.

"You haven't missed much… They've just finished their first turns, but Mai's acting real weird all of a sudden," he replied more seriously, watching the woman duel intently.

"W-Weird how?" I asked, glancing at the field. Mai had some sort of… winged warrior monster on the field while Marik had his infamous _Revival Jam,_ which I'm sure we all know was his favorite party trick. He also had… I'm gonna say a _Revival Jam_ gun thing? I mean, I knew what it was, but I wasn't sure what its name was… something charming I'm sure, though. Hell, I didn't really give half a shit what it was called, but Marik was definitely going to use it for one of his Dick Moves™.

Serenity answered me this time. "She's not letting us help her and she's shutting us down every time we try to talk to her. It's not like her." She sounded hopelessly lost, and if I could recall correctly, Serenity really looked up to Mai, so this must have been painful for her. She bit her lip and crossed her arms over her chest.

Well, at least all that that fit with what I remembered about this duel.

"Our battle has only just begun and already you doubt yourself," Marik remarked with a chuckle. His imposing stare cast a looming shadow over the field and his sinister smirk made perfectly certain that the word "doubt" sunk in.

Mai may have looked pretty confident up there on that pedestal with her luscious blonde locks blowing in the wind behind her, but I sure wasn't. Her voice boomed out over the field, trying to push back Marik's dark silhouette and almost managing to do so. "You are wrong _again_! Now, my _Dark Witch_ , attack his _Revival Jam_ with _Spellbinding Flux_!"

_Oh no…_ Even I knew that was not a good idea. I saw Yugi stiffen; he'd been up against _Revival Jam_ before supposedly, so maybe he and I were the same in terms of knowing useful things that could save Mai but not actually being able to apply these things to the real world. Well, maybe not exactly the same, considering his track record with beating the odds and saving the day was pretty solid, while mine was… let's just say "shaky at best"

Immediately responding to her call, the female monster rose up into the air, crossing her arms over her chest and then unleashing a dark energy blast all at once with a swift motion of her arms. The energy flowed across the field, swift as a bullet, and collided with the amorphous form of Marik's monster, causing the the monster to disintegrate as several clusters of of it were cast off in every direction.

As I waited for _Revival Jam_ to reintegrate, I noted something and that was the fact that the atmosphere was still clear, which meant that Marik still hadn't started the Shadow Game; still its looming threat tied my intestines into knots and brought the bile to my throat.

_**Calm down, Lorna.** _

_You're back?_

_**I never leave.** _

_Please tell me that, by some miracle, Mai beats this creep?_

_**I honestly don't know… I'm sorry.** _

I felt a heavy gust of wind ruffle my clothes and rubbed my arms fiercely, while, out of the corner of my eye, two violet irises met my own. He looked down at me inquisitively, his right hand tightly gripping his cards and his other hand idly resting on top of his deck. Uncomfortably, I shrunk into Tristan.

"Is it just me or is creepazoid over there checking you out?" he asked, reaching out for my arm to drag me out of Marik's line of sight.

"Can we not call it _that_?" I moaned miserably. "I'm probably his next victim. He's got this Ted Bundy look in his eye like he's about to drag me to his terror dungeon."

" _ **Terror dungeon"?**_

_Shut up._

"'Terror dungeon'?" Tristan echoed with an amused look on his face -or at least, as amused as you can be when your friend is in immediate danger, dueling a disturbed individual who has killed before and would totally kill again; Marik probably enjoyed this.

"Shut up," I told him, though my actual voice shivered much more than the voice in my head. Whether it was due to anxiety or the cold, it didn't matter; both were equal threats as far as I was concerned.

Tristan sighed laboriously and rubbed the back of his neck. "N-No, I mean I can imagine him having one of those honestly. Probably in his evil Egyptian underground lair."

I cracked half of a smile. "Probably does. We should ask him."

"And get myself killed?" he asked, startled. "You're on your own with that."

While the two of us conversed, _Revival Jam_ had returned to the field and Marik had a treacherous sneer on his face. "I'll play this: my _Pot of Greed_!" The magic card materialized on the field behind his monster. I could have sworn Marik glanced at me again before he explained. "It's a magic card that allows me to draw two _more_ cards from my deck."

Well, _fuck_. That wasn't good.

Marik's head leaned away slightly and his eyes steadily met my own again, causing my heart to skip a beat, and this time, there was definitely no mistaking that these words were directed to your favorite protagonist. "You get all that, Lorna?"

The rate of my pulse was speeding up more and more the more he looked at me, reducing my life expectancy incrementally. "Wh-What?" I wheezed.

_Smooth, Lorna._


	28. House of Cards

So I was in the duelist lounge. Did I finish watching the duel between Marik an Mai? Nope. In fact, it was still going on while I ate ice cream with a twelve year-old, his bodyguard, and the teen dream, Duke Devlin. And do you want to know why I was eating ice cream with a twelve year-old, his bodyguard, and the teen dream, Duke Devlin?

I burst into tears.

And I'm not talking like I teared up a little and had to pretend nothing was wrong; no, I'm talking full-on fetal position sobbing -right in front of Seto Kaiba. Way to make a first impression; am I right? Oh, and you should have seen the look on his face. If I wasn't hysterically sobbing, I would have enjoyed it much more than I did. He had this expression like he wasn't sure whether to laugh or burst into flames out of pure rage, and he kept twitching for as long as it took his brother and Duke to remove me from the vicinity.

Honestly, I couldn't really explain to you clearly what went on in my mind at that moment, because yeah, I know bursting into tears is neither the ideal nor the typical reaction to a homicidal sixteen year-old talking to you. All I could really remember was glancing at Marik's millennium rod and then at his face, followed by the once-over of shame as I looked around at Yugi and his friends, who seemed even more surprised than I was. Not to mention the fact that my good-ol' friend, Voice, decided to pester me at that exact moment, its words filling in the spots in my brain reserved for figuring shit out. It was like all these things were in my brain and I was trying to make sense of them. It was as though I was stacking up a giant tower of playing cards and having it collapse all around me, and there was itty bitty Lorna sitting in a pile of red, white and black looking like an idiot.

To put it concisely, it was a massive file sorting error in my brain, and with luck, I could probably keep that under control in the future. However, you of all people know my track record with this, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. The thing that pissed me off, though, was that I was certain something was about to click in my brain at that moment, not that I was prepared to go back to that demolition site and figure it out though. At least, not for another few hours.

"This ice cream is really good," I murmured, nibbling on a cone with two different flavored scoops stacked onto it: strawberry cheesecake and lazycake. "Where do you get it?"

Mokuba dug his face out of his own ice cream long enough to answer, albeit in a bit of an awkward tone. "Ah you like it? My big bro had it imported from Italy."

I nodded quietly. "I meant like a shop… but yeah, sure I'll just take my personal jet to Italy next time I want ice cream."

I heard a chuckle and turned to Duke. "Sorry you had to come with me," I told him. "You can just go back now. I mean, I'm okay here…"

Duke took a long deliberate lick of his ice cream and grinned. "What? And miss out on all the fun?" He winked. "It's freezing outside and there's ice cream in here."

"Oh, so you're not trying at all to be chivalrous?" I asked him, smiling in spite of myself.

Mokuba laughed. "It's a good enough reason for me!"

"Oh?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "I'd imagine Mokuba Kaiba, brother to the CEO of KaibaCorp, would be super excited about his brother's super flashy duel tournament."

He looked down at his lap, the spark of excitement in his eyes replaced by something else in that moment. "Don't get me wrong; I am excited," he informed me, his voice betraying the opposite emotions, however. His eyes met mine once again. "It's just getting really intense… and kinda dangerous. And when my brother's serious about something, he sees it through, no matter what anyone else says."

"Maybe he shouldn't be so stubborn," I suggested, taking another lick of my ice cream and getting one of the delicious cake bits.

"Well, being stubborn is what got Seto to where he is now. He wouldn't be my brother if he wasn't so determined. It's really one of the best things about him…" He trailed off and glanced over at one of the small monitors on the wall to check on the progress of the duel.

"But…?" I probed, trying to drag his attention away from the duel, for his sake, and more importantly, for my own sake.

"But nothing," he replied stiffly. He sighed and brought his attention back to his dripping ice cream. "That Marik guy is bad news; I'm sure of it. I hope Mai makes it out okay. She doesn't look too good."

Like a giant middle finger to my current mental state, I decided to take a gander at the monitor that was displaying the duel, feeling my thoughts cloud up and bristle like a security system powering up. My entire body was on red alert and it occurred to me that I might have needed to get some sleep; real sleep, not just a loss of consciousness and a lovely trip to the ever picturesque Inbetween.

"Hey, she has the _Winged Dragon of Ra_!" Duke exclaimed, a hesitant smile on his face. "That's good, right?"

"Y-Yeah!" Mokuba cried with the same hesitation. "It should be. That card was Marik's gambit and now it's in Mai's hands."

I cleared my throat and took another lick of ice cream to calm myself down. "That's actually… not good. Not good at all."

My three companions all turned to face me simultaneously, but it was the bodyguard (the one whose name I still hadn't gotten) who spoke. "What do you mean?"

I bit the inside of my cheek and felt myself shiver. Damn ice cream…

"I mean that she can't summon it. The _Winged Dragon of Ra_ can only be summoned by certain people. It's like the card is alive and it decides who can summon it and who can't. You have to recite this ancient text written on the card, and it's damn near indecipherable if you're not meant to be summoning it," I explained sullenly, watching their reactions to my words.

"You don't look surprised," Duke noted, his words directed towards Mokuba.

Mokuba closed his eyes and nodded. "I'm not. Seto has me translating that text. It hasn't been easy… How do you know all this?" he asked me.

My heart jumped. Fuck, he was right; I wasn't supposed to know that. "Long story," I replied swiftly, hoping he wouldn't push it any further. I mean, yeah, I was fine with telling people where I was really from, but I figured four people (and whoever they may have told) were enough for now.

"Should we get out there and warn her?" Duke asked, leaning forward in his seat and boring his eyes into the tiny screen, which, in my humble opinion (and I'm no optometrist), couldn't have been too healthy.

I shook my head, pointing to the screen where Marik was giving his most sadistic smile to both Mai and the spectators. He laughed and looked as though he was explaining the very thing I had just told my companions, only much more gleefully. We had the sound muted, so I couldn't say for sure, but if the _Winged Dragon_ hologram blinking into existence around him was any indication, my guess wasn't too far off. "Too late."

As we spoke, the door clicked and two people made their way into the lounge: one I recognized very well as one of the hellspawn who nearly killed me a little while ago, and the other I didn't recognize as well. They both had long black hair, though Sun was still rocking her femme fatale red lipstick, while the other seemed a bit more on the natural side.

"Who's that?" I whispered to Duke, trying not to stare at the women to conspicuously.

"The eighth duelist," he replied.

 _The eighth duelist._ Ishizu Ishtar. Yeah… I think I remembered her… if vaguely. Her white, billowing dress was prettier in real life, and it almost looked like _she_ was the one from another world, not me. What was she doing with Sun? She may have been Marik's sister, but she was one of the good guys as far as I knew. I'm not sure what the policy is on holding people down and forcing them into a state of unconsciousness where _you guys_ are from, but to me, it was strictly _bad guy_ behaviour.

"That woman with her," I told him hushedly. "She's..." I trailed off, trying to find the right words to use.

"Have you met her?" he asked, trying to keep his voice just as low as mine.

I nodded and turned around to look at the screen again. "For like five minutes, but just enough time for her to show her true colors." I scowled just in case they needed any clarification as to what these "true colors" were.

I glanced at the two women again. They had taken a seat at a table on the other side of the room as us, right beside a different monitor. It didn't look like they were talking; Ishizu was transfixed with her brother's face. Sun reached out and put her hand over the other woman's, her lips moving briefly. For a minute, I could have sworn something was wrong with Sun's face; blackness oozed from her eyes, came out through her lips like small wisps, and for a moment, even her alabaster skin seemed to blister and break before my eyes, mutating into a state very similar to the broken leathery texture of a corpse.

"Did you just see that?" I breathed, feeling my entire body clench and fall back into my seat.

"Lorna, are you okay?" he asked me.

Something cold and clammy was on my wrist. I shrieked, snatching my arm away and shrinking further into the seat cushion behind me. Not right now. Not right now. Not here…

"Lorna!" Duke? "It's just me. You're okay. It's just me."

And when the fog cleared, there he was, his jade eyes full of concern and his hand positioned awkwardly over his chest. He watched me cautiously as I slowly remembered how to breathe, my heart beating faster than Superman on steroids. It was just him. I was okay.

"Duke… I'm so…" My eyes traveled across his face and down to his closed fist; it was red and I could see crescent marks on his wrist. I didn't… Shit. I did. "I'm so sorry… I thought you were…" Well, to be quite honest, I wasn't sure _what_ I thought he was, but I could recall the same feeling of dread clamping over that stupid beating organ in my chest from before.

Mokuba and his guard had noticed this exchange and were giving us inquisitive looks, making me feel more and more like a freakshow with every passing second. "Is everything okay?" Mokuba asked with an expression on his face that was less concerned and more frightened.

"Y-Yeah…" I told him, sheathing my hand into my lap and trying to be calmer and less prone to violent outbursts. "You guys… You didn't just see _that_?" I asked, my eyes travelling once more to the two women conversing.

"See what?" came Duke's inquiry.

I bit my lip and looked over the women again. Sun's face was back to normal and the two of them looked like they came out of fucking Vogue for this stupid card game tournament. Not wanting to get into it, I simply shook my head and diverted my gaze towards the television to check on Mai. "N-nothing… It's nothing," I stammered. Mai wasn't looking too good; she was strapped to a large stone tablet by golden chains. I could have said something to stop this… I should have…

**_You can't change anything, Lorna. Worry about yourself._ **

_Easy for you to say. You're a disembodied voice._

It chuckled, but I wasn't in the mood for its complete lack of empathy and total disregard for any human life that wasn't mine. **_I'm sorry._**

_Yeah, just because I'm in a bad mood._

_**No…**_ There was almost a hint of reluctance in its tone. ** _I'm really sorry… for everything, Lorna._**

_Unless you're the one putting Mai in a coma right now, I'm so not in the mood for your apologies._

The Voice didn't reply to me this time, but it seemed like it wasn't completely gone, and I could feel its presence in the back of my mind, waiting for a chance to speak up again.

My heart beat erratically in my chest, like a broken car engine, sputtering and letting out smoke, causing me to tear up. I twitched my nose, trying to keep it all down, and no one's surprise was greater than mine when I succeeded.

"We have to go back out there, Duke," I urged frantically, stumbling to my feet and tossing my half-eaten cone into a styrofoam tray on the table. I grabbed his arm and began pulling him up. "Come on!" Duke rose and allowed me to drag him across the lounge and towards the stairwell leading to the dueling arena, while Mokuba and his bodyguard tailed us.

Halfway up the stairwell, I was met with a familiar face, sweaty, panting, and desperate. Joey was carrying an unconscious Mai in his arms bridal style, her long legs dangling over his forearm like the lifeless limbs of a doll, her head lolling around in the crook of his elbow.

"Out of the way, Lorna!" he snapped, pushing past me in the narrow space, and within the span of one minute, the rest of the group pushed past me, leaving me pressed against the wall, barely keeping my balance.

Once the commotion was over, I was alone; not even Duke, Mokuba and the bodyguard were with me. There was a soft tapping of shoes on metal and the sound of fabric brushing against fabric indicating that I wasn't completely alone. No, towering above me, his shadow long, dramatic, and incredibly true to his character, was Seto Kaiba.

"Why aren't you with the geek squad?" he asked icily with that condescending grin of his decorating his face. "Afraid you'll start crying again?" He began to chuckle… no, not chuckle. He cackled like an evil genius. It wasn't even a really sick burn either. I mean, wow, I cry a lot -like that's brand new information?

As he passed me, his ridiculously exaggerated coat brushed against my legs. "I'll have you know I suffer from chronic anxiety!" I called after him. "And you're an ableist sack of shit for making fun of my panic attack!"

His walking slowed to a stop just before reaching the end of the stairs and his head turned ninety degrees left. "What are you to Marik?"

My heart leapt into my throat and I was feeling the unfortunately familiar sensation of goosebumps on my arm. "What do you mean?" I asked, tacking on an "I don't even know him." for clarification.

"His face when you left… I almost thought he was going to cry, too," he spoke pensively then returned to his typical piggish tone with a scoff. "Maybe we should give you panic attacks more often."

I frowned. "Go shove your stupid _Blue-Eyes_ jet up your ass."

He laughed again. "You're like a miniature Wheeler. It seems that loser's more bearable when he's travel size."

Did he just make fun of my height? There were a select few things that stirred my chowder, and jokes about my height made the top ten. "Hey!" I exclaimed against my better judgement. "How 'bout you get that big-ass head of yours to climb down its seven foot ladder and fucking fight me?" I wanted to mention that his head was bigger than his bank account, but I figured it didn't fit within the context, so it was a jab for another day.

For a moment, he was silently staring at me over his shoulder, his hands in his pockets, looking like a fucking model or a movie star -I couldn't decide -and then he turned his head and nodded, letting out an amused scoff. "You're funny, Beck."

Taken aback, I widened my eyes. "How do you know my name?" I asked, feeling really stupid and trying not to think about how I must have been a joke to this man.

"It's my business to know," he replied simply. "Now aren't your friends waiting for you? Or do you just enjoy standing by yourself in dark hallways like a psychopath waiting for her next victim?"

I inched down the stairs slowly, feeling half-offended and, surprisingly, half-giddy. "And what if you're my next victim. I don't see any bodyguards around."

I heard a soft chuckle and he began to continue his descent down the stairs. "You think I can't take you in a fight, Beck? You must really be delusional."

"I'm surprisingly durable, you know. I've literally come back from the dead, or so I've heard," I told him, grinning and walking behind him. I couldn't see much over his giant body, so I was really just blindly following him.

"Oh ho," he exclaimed sarcastically, "That _must_ make you worth my time."

"You're still talking to me, aren't you?" I informed him with a lopsided grin of my own. He didn't reply this time, however, opting to simply raise a dismissive hand and go through the door, letting it shut behind him.

 _Rude-ass bitch._ All that aside, though, the exchange made me feel more refreshed than I had been in quite a while. I decided that for all that cockiness and attitude, I liked Seto Kaiba.

It was only when I was at the infirmary door that I remembered something very important from my conversation with the multi-billionaire. It almost attacked me like a windstorm, giving me the chills and nearly petrifying me, and the refreshing feeling from a moment ago was completely gone now, replaced by the cool sweat and stomach cramps of anxiety.

_"What are you to Marik?"_

_"I don't even know him!"_

What if… What if I did? Kaiba said Marik looked like he was about to cry after he made me panic. I didn't get a good look at his face when he spoke to me during the duel, too preoccupied with myself, but Kaiba noticed something in him, enough to make some kind of connection between us. I'd be lying if it didn't make me sick to my stomach. I was having a bad enough time as it was _without_ being connected to Marik.

And then there was that thing that I figured out during the duel -the thing that worsened my sensory overload… the thing that my brain won't let me think about. Keeping the thought to itself was no doubt a defense mechanism, but I didn't have time for my brain to play "mom" and do things "for my own good"

"Lorna, get in here," a sweet voice called out, startling me out of my thoughts. I saw Yugi standing before me, with concern on his face and perhaps a dash of caution, which came across as more suspicion than anything else.

I smiled slightly. "Ah… okay." I suppose my revelation would have to wait a few minutes. It was at the corner of my mind, though; I just had to reach for it. "H-How is she doing?" I stuttered, trying to keep my distance as I took small, tentative steps towards the large group hunching over someone who was probably an unconscious Mai.

"Not very good," Yugi mumbled solemnly, looking over at the rest of the group. He was quiet as he explained the situation to me, trying not to distress everyone further. "Her soul is trapped in an eternal prison… so she's not dead, but…"

I nodded quietly and tried not to look at Joey, whose shoulders were shuddering while he held his friend's cold hand. It was so weird seeing him like this -hopeless, powerless, lifeless -when I was so accustomed to seeing him grinning, ruffling my hair and joking around. It felt like we hadn't really been reunited and Joey was still far away from me, which was such a selfish thought to have when his close friend (maybe even the woman he loved) was in a life-or-death situation. So maybe I really wasn't any better than Zorc…

Trying to expel the thought from my mind, I backed away into one of the guest sofas, taking a seat and making myself more invisible than I already was. None of them had time for me, so it would be awful to make them have to deal with me.

Going back to my train of thought earlier, however…

The only way Marik could know me prior to that duel would have to be when I woke up in his room, and I still didn't know why that was. Just before that I was in the Inbetween with Malik, who admittedly did have a passing resemblance to Marik. I had dismissed it earlier because they didn't really look at all alike. Malik's face was more angular and rugged, his jaw strong, and his eyes sharp, while Marik's face was the face of a young boy, round and soft, sallow and unassuming. There was no way in hell they were the same person -of that I was sure (even if they had similar names). Going by the logic that Marik and Malik were one and the same, however, it would follow that, for some reason, Malik, who I had only just met, would have to know me much better than he had originally let on, and I couldn't think of any way he could know me that well.

There was only one individual with a giant question mark in my list of acquaintances and that was the Voice. It was the only person (was it even human) whose identity was a complete mystery to me. I was positive my revelation was about it, and even as I recalled these thoughts, I could almost physically feel the pieces fit together in my head. Something was coming together and the darkness that surrounded me was getting a little less suffocating.

So could Marik have been the voice in my head? He had his Millennium Rod, so he was certainly capable of telepathically communicating with me if he wanted to, but why would he want to? I sighed and shook my head. I didn't have to worry about the "why" yet so long as I still had the "who" and the "how" to worry about.

If Marik was the Voice, then everything he said was a lie -everything he told me, every time he tried to help me… It was all leading towards his secret agenda, which would, in that case, seem to be more than just killing the Pharaoh and taking his power. He told me I was in a coma… was even that a lie?

I couldn't completely remember the moment before I came here… wherever "here" is. I woke up. I was exhausted, sleep-deprived. I'd always been sleep-deprived, trudging my way through life drunk and unaware. That day was no different. I never wanted to sleep because, when they weren't nightmares, my dreams were infinitely more interesting than my life, and I hated it. I hated my dreams, and I liked to be disgustingly aware of how dull my life was, but you don't care about that. I don't care about that. We just wanted to know what was going on.

It was almost dreamlike as I danced down the stairs, half-carrying my backpack and half-dropping it, not even paying attention to the swaying stair steps and the impending doom, and it came with a loud ear-splitting snap.

Most stories I've read called it "time standing still" as I collided and fell, each movement completely discernible from the last and each millisecond containing a thought. I was too drunk for that. My death happened in a split second, with no last thoughts, no mounting pressure, no fear. I stumbled into the light like a last place runner falling face-first into the finish line.

I knew I was dead; I always did. I never forgot that nightmare I had last night; I just said I did, when I really filed it away, pretended to forget. Most importantly. There was no coma. That was a lie, and I think I knew that all along. It was a fact that was hard to miss and… a coma? That was the kind of lie only I would believe, even when Zephyr tried to tell me otherwise. So maybe he wasn't the bad guy all along. Or maybe I was just getting ahead of myself.

The last question was: why would Marik tell me that? He wasn't dead, and therefore Malik wasn't dead. He wasn't "in a coma" either… He lied about that, too. What were his motives?

I tried to separate my thoughts from my emotions because I wasn't ready to deal with this shit -not yet. I wasn't strong enough. My eyes stung, shut tight; my head blocked out my surroundings -I couldn't deal with everything all at once. Would it be stupid to say that I thought that the Voice was actually my friend? That it actually wanted to help me?

"Hey! Lorna!"

I almost suffered whiplash at the speed I moved my head up, trying to identify the angry voice that called out my name. "J-Joey?" I whispered, losing my voice in my throat, feeling it try to climb over the lump that had formed.

He was still shaking, his hair disheveled and his brown eyes glaring a hole into my skull. It took less than a second for my heartbeat to accelerate to one thousand times its original speed. I wasn't good at making eye contact to begin with, but staring into his intense eyes was even harder, more painful.

"You knew!" he hollered, clenching and unclenching his fist at his side as he tried to regain his composure. "You knew this would happen to her the entire time, didn't you?" His question was a quiet statement rather than a loud remark.

"Joey," Téa pleaded. "A lot of things have changed. She said so herself. What if she didn't -"

"No, she knew," Joey interrupted, sounding more sure of himself than he ever had before. "You can see it all over her face."

His words slapped me in the face, and I probably deserved it. "I… I knew."

"When were you going to tell us you and Marik knew each other?" he asked.

"I don't know."

I felt so small, barely even hearing my own voice as it came out of my mouth. It didn't stop there, though. He shot out statement after scalding statement. Joey was no fool and he had pieced together more than I could ever have given him credit for. Everyone else was hauntingly quiet, so there was no white noise surrounding his statements, just his loud, confident rage, unfiltered and unbridled.

I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong.

"You lied about everything!"

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

**_I'm so sorry, Lorna._ **


	29. Terra II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obligatory Trigger Warning for things like RAPE, SUICIDE, SUICIDAL IDEATION, and all that unpleasant stuff.

"So my brother really is an Anchor," Ishizu mumbles, sitting at the edge of her bed and fiddling with her Millennium Necklace. It worries her enough that Marik is succumbing to the dark entity that has long threatened to consume his entire being, but the thought of him in the realm between life and death scares her; she doesn't want to think about him walking the tightrope of the Inbetween, especially when he won't even listen to her when she tries to help him.

Sun nods, leaning against the door and shutting her eyes in thought. "But the anchor to _who_?" she asks nobody in particular, for she knows that for all the answers Ishizu possessed, that is not one of them. "And why does he favor that girl?" She smirks before adding in a lighthearted tone, "Your baby brother wasn't _lonely_ in that crypt, was he?"

Taken aback by the jab, Ishizu simply gawks, unsure of how to respond. "I-I… Well, he never seemed to be interested in women," she replies, and upon noticing Sun's knowing smile, she adds, "Or men, for that matter."

"Relax, Ishizu, I was only kidding," Sun clarifies. "That still doesn't explain who Marik is tethered to. He's been acting differently around Lorna, but I know for a fact that Lorna's anchor is Serenity Wheeler."

"How did you find out?" Ishizu questions, a puzzled expression on her face.

Sun pushes away from the wall and approaches Ishizu. "Marik's not the only one acting strangely. Serenity has been flinching at every shadow since she got here, and I overheard her confiding in her brother earlier. She may not completely remember what happened in the Inbetween, but she remembers bits and pieces from the time she spent there… and she _certainly_ remembers Lorna."

"And what of Marik's tether?" Ishizu asks, getting them back on the more pressing matter at hand.

Sun strokes her chin thoughtfully, her mind going over the possibilities briefly before closing in on one certain thought. "Whoever it is, they're on this blimp somewhere, and between me, Zephyr and Lorna, there aren't many possibilities. I know _I'm_ not his tether and it's pretty unlikely that Zephyr is either. Whoever this is… they must have snuck onto this blimp somehow…"

"And avoided KaibaCorp's security?" Ishizu asks, disbelief lacing her tone, and furrows her brow. "Kaiba would never allow for a breach like that to go unchecked."

"You're telling me?" Sun frowns. "I was the one making sure security was tight. Nobody got on or off this thing without me knowing." She feels a tightness in her chest and attempts to let out the breath she has been holding in. "Your brother's dueling now, isn't he?"

It's almost as though Ishizu is trying to forget this fact; whoever his unfortunate opponent is, their grim fate is casting shadows over her face, paving creases into her forehead and darkening her irises. "Yes." She lets out a shuddering exhale. "We should watch."

* * *

Ishizu's eyes aren't any brighter once her brother's duel is over, having seen the light in Mai's eyes go out so clearly, even on that small LCD monitor in the lounge. She doesn't want to breathe, afraid that the tiniest movement will set the girl's imprisonment in stone. This was _Ishizu's_ idea -this tournament -and everyone who gets hurt is blood on _her hands_ ; or at least that's what she tells herself when Sun isn't around to snap her out of it.

_There's nothing you could have done…_ She can almost hear Sun say it. The only thing stopping her lips from moving is the lost expression on her face as she sits there, frozen, her eyes still on the empty duel arena on the screen long after the duel's devastating conclusion.

Lorna and her friends have already gone to the infirmary and the two women are the only ones left in the large room. It isn't long, however, before they see someone meekly shuffling back into the room with the defeated gait of someone who is so low that even simple thoughts have proven to be too draining a task.

"What's she doing?" Ishizu whispers -not that her words would have been heard had she spoken clearly.

Sun furrows her brow, moving her silky hair away from her face and rising to her feet. The figure seems to be moving back towards the dueling arena and everyone in the room knows that the only person left there is Marik. "Is she confronting him?" she questions uncertainly, taking a step towards the exit, her green eyes taking in the small shivering creature and the dishevelled black hair.

* * *

_Her name is Yoon Seo Song and she's a quality assurance manager at a telecommunications firm -mainly a desk job, never getting any more exciting than the occasional facility inspection, and even that is her subordinates' job. It pays well, though, but with over one hundred grand a year and nobody to spend it on, she can't exactly call it glamorous. Years of studying for a master's degree in some shit she doesn't care about and a job that she hates. But it pays well enough that she drowns her frustrations in fancy champagne rather than cheap whiskey -that she can buy a flat big enough that she has an excuse for all the dreams she lost._

" _Yoon Seo, how's the feasibility study going?" he comes by and asks. He knows she's not finished -the_ jackass.

_She smiles at him so he doesn't make her job any worse than it has to be -or worse: fires her. Then again, she wouldn't mind getting fired actually… "It's going, Bill," she says with a nervous chuckle. "I'll have it done by the end of the day. My team's hard at work, so don't worry about it."_

" _Great!" he gives her a predatory grin. He knows she's interested in women, but that doesn't really seem to matter to him, judging by the way he eyed her lithe form, his eyes taking in her long tan arms in the light blue sleeveless button-up shirt she has chosen to wear. If anything, her explicit interest in women and only women seems to encourage him further. He's never taken it farther than strange smiles and mental molestation so he's harmless as far as she's concerned. "I'm looking forward to your presentation. The meeting's at eleven tomorrow. Got it?"_

_With a professional nod, she replies. "Of course."_

_Of course._

_She's lying._

_She lives alone. Perhaps that's not too surprising. It's not called 'drowning your sorrows' if you've got someone to drink with -no, that's just socialization, something that Yoon Seo doesn't get much of -not that she actually looks for it. She can't even remember the last social visit she'd gotten that wasn't her drunk next-door neighbor asking for condoms; she doesn't even own any condoms and part of her thinks he only asks because he thinks she's some kind of Asian prostitute; so she's not sure which part of that asshole she hates more: the racist or the perverted drunk._

_Some lonely people keep cats around for company and sometimes she wonders if that's a good idea. When your brain's messed up and you can't for the life of you find a single emotion worth living for, maybe keeping a cat would be cruel. She knows that if she actually did it -if she actually took her own life, it would take months for them to actually find her body, and who would take care of little Whiskers then? It wouldn't be able to leave her apartment either; she lives in a high rise building so if the door's not an option, neither are the windows. No, she can't handle the thought of something depending on her when she can barely depend on herself._

_Of course, grim thoughts like these aren't the only thing on her mind as she lays on the couch, staring at the crack in the ceiling, wishing it would just fall down and crush her. Sometimes her mind wanders to the far corners of her adolescent years, when she thought she had a purpose -when she thought she had true love… That was so long ago. Does Felicity still think of her now? She's not sure, but she had heard from someone that a family priest (who the fuck even_ has _a family priest?) had "successfully" prayed the gay out of her. What a ridiculous fucking joke._

_And maybe that's what Yoon Seo needs: an exorcism. Less for her sexual preference, though, and more for the demons in her head, hiding in the ink black of her hair like parasites, clawing into the ground behind her so she never moves forward -only back. She wishes she could crack her skull open with a hammer and pull out every single, pesky one of them, and then maybe for once she can have a good night's sleep. For once she could leave her house, find a pretty girl, and charm the pants off of her. She could say "I'm fine" and actually mean it. She could be an actual human being rather than a useless sack of useless organs all carelessly piled up to keep a useless creature alive._

_One great thing about the independent Asian business woman, she thinks, is the fact that nobody gives a shit -not one solitary shit. She doesn't have to explain why she hates herself. She doesn't have to explain why her eyes are cold and dead, waiting for the rest of her body to catch up. All she has to do is take that one step into oblivion, and when she does, she'll make sure she takes at least one piece of shit down with her. A funny thing about depression, however, is that it gets to a point where even killing yourself is an obligation that you just don't have the strength to get done, buried under months upon months of procrastination._

_She's an incompetent mockery of a human being. Three extra years getting a minor in psychology and she can't even figure out why she wants to die, nor can she put together the reason why she hasn't done it yet. Is there a pill for that? Yeah, sure there is. There are a whole bunch of pills that, when swallowed in the dozens, could probably end it for good, but that's too much work, isn't it?_

_She never really resolves to finally do it the next day; it just sort of happens, and maybe that is how it was meant to be. She still has that meeting at eleven… three hours is a lot of time._

" _Yoonie!" someone calls out timidly as she settles into her cubicle. It's a short blonde woman with a button nose and two earnest eyes, the only person Yoon Seo tolerates at this godforsaken firm._

" _Joan, are you okay?" she asks, noting the distress on the woman's face. Her face is pale and sickly, her eyes wide, glancing around the room, her hands clasped together in an attempt to stop them from shaking. Yoon Seo stands up, reaching for the woman's hands; they're cold and clammy to the touch._

" _Do you want to go and get coffee?" Joan asks, biting her lip._

" _I've got a break at 12:30 -"_

" _N-Now… if… if you can." Her voice is soft and shaky, her tone terrified, like some horrifying and omniscient being is listening in on their conversation. This isn't Joan. Joan is a big fan of pleasant conversation, rabbits, and pleasant conversation about rabbits (of which she owns three and gives Yoon Seo daily updates on their adventures). This Joan speaking right now is anxious and almost afraid._

_With a sigh, Yoon Seo nods and puts her hand on Joan's shoulder. "Yeah, sure." Those are the last words spoken between the women before their arrival at a nearby coffeeshop._

_It doesn't take her long to speak up once the two of them have settled. Joan isn't too good at keeping things bottled up inside; she is as honest and open as one could be -almost to a fault -and Yoon Seo feels dread pooling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of something Joan would want to keep a secret. Of course, Joan is small and sheltered despite being twenty-seven years old, so this could all be something trivial in comparison to the horrors speeding through Yoon Seo's mind._

" _I- I can't…_ don't _know how to… tell you- I_ can't _say…" The woman begins to babble, her entire body shaking and her voice just as well. Her tone is hesitant and lower than a whisper, while her eyes still search for the omniscient being from before. Yoon Seo doesn't know how to stop it or how to make her better, so she simply reaches out for her hand and nods slowly; somehow, this gets Joan to shut her mouth and take a deep breath before trying again. "Bill," she finally blurts out. Her voice is still quiet and almost inaudible, but it's louder than the frantic rasping noises she had been making earlier._

_Yoon Seo isn't sure she heard her friend correctly, but her mind begins to put things together anyway. "Bill?" She can see it in her mind already -_

" _He… he… f-fuh…" The word struggles to get out of the girl's throat and Yoon Seo can feel a dark cloud forming over their heads -or maybe it's just Yoon Seo's dark cloud reaching out and darkening Joan's sky as well. Joan puts her hands around her neck, feeling for her voice-box, as though that would make her words come out more easily._

" _What did he do?" She almost doesn't want Joan to answer. Somehow she already knows; she has been expecting it in some sick, twisted way._

" _He fucked me." she blurts out in as hushed a tone as she could manage._

_No, that's not the correct term, Yoon Seo thinks; he didn't fuck her. He_ raped _her. Joan isn't good at putting words together… or maybe she's scared that if she says the real word, that it would make her experience very real. Yoon Seo wants to feel empathy in that moment… she feels like that's what a normal person should feel… and she can only feel blind, murderous rage. Maybe it's because in that moment, she's broken too._

_She can see it in her mind already -she can see how she's going to end him._

" _Don't tell anyone, Yoonie."_

_She doesn't feel like Yoon Seo; she feels like a robot, cycling through files, her mind barely reading her thoughts as she tries to find the one she wants. It's an empty feeling. For a moment there's nothing on her mind at all, white noise and blackness. Her face is blank and her green eyes are nearly brown under her long lashes and the rain clouds whirling overhead._

_She knows Bill's schedule; she watches him when she has nothing to do -she watches everyone, but this is the knowledge she chooses to access. He deliberately keeps his appointment book empty; 'one of the perks of the job' he tells everyone but his boss. He's sloppy though, like he wouldn't even dream of the target on his back, carved into his flesh and filled in with mucus and grime._

" _What can I do for you?" he asks, surprised to see her in his office, and she's surprised to be there herself. She shuts the door behind her -one of the first warnings on the job was never to shut yourself in with this man if you were a woman; not really hitting at the root of the problem if_ that _is the unspoken rule they choose to enforce rather than the more absolute alternative, an absolute alternative that she intends to bring into existence._

" _I was hoping we could… discuss a thing or two," she tells him, her voice betraying no hint of emotion, and thankfully, men are infinitely skilled in the art of creating implication where there is none -that's what she's counting on. Men… they don't change._

_It's her brain on autopilot, her entire body moving of its own accord. As far as she's concerned, she's been dead from the moment she began setting this plot into action, watching an empty shell of herself from above and wondering if she's doing the right thing. Too late when you're dead._

_In fact she doesn't even need her degree in psychology to know how he wanted to interpret her actions and how he'll react. He does everything she needs him to like a scripted robot, his coarse hands grabbing her by the collar of her shirt, his wasted breath on her face, and now it's too late for him to back down. She shoves him away, scratching at his skin, making sure to get it firmly under her nails -it needs to be convincing._

_He's heavy on top of her, and maybe she underestimated his weight, but it's too late. All too late._

_She's breathing heavily, throwing a calculated strike to his neck and rushing to the back of his office near the tall glass windows. They aren't meant to be opened, but maybe she can coerce them… He follows after her, and even though she knows she's minutes away from the end she can't help but let out a smirk at how easy this is. He isn't stupid, of course, and he pins her against the window, making the entire row of fixtures vibrate under the sudden pressure._

" _What are you doing, Song. Do you think this is some kind of fucking game?"_

" _What do you think I'm doing?" she says, deciding to stop the charade and give him a lazy smile._

" _I could kill you right here and no one would bat a single eyelash. Your life is worthless. You think I haven't done a background check on you, Song? You live alone. You have no friends, no family, not even a goddamned cat. Do you think you can just end me right here, right now?" he asks, watching her face falter and for a moment feeling himself swell up with victory. "I'll let this one slide if you drop to your knees right now and give me a quick one. And then you take that tight ass of yours out of this office, clean yourself off, and get me that report ready in time for the meeting at eleven."_

_She doesn't say anything for what seems like forever, his hands digging into the skin of her wrists. Feeling her jaw tighten, she grimaces. "Fine." And the pressure on her wrists is gone, allowing her to drop to her knees. He turns them around so he's leaning more comfortably against the glass, and then proceeds to unzip his pants._

_And oh, he is just too easy._

_Checkmate._

_In one final show of strength, she butts her head against his crotch, causing him to lose his balance, his body crashing against the glass, his head breaking through completely. He dies long before she does, his neck impaled on one stubborn shard of glass; it doesn't take much to push the rest of him through -the first cracks have already set._

_He's heavier than she expected, even heavier when he's dead, but she has to make this convincing. She's got him by the front of his shirt, making sure he doesn't fall yet. He doesn't get to choose his final thoughts, and though her mind is working with the resolve of a small toy at the ends of its battery life, she wants the insignificant privilege of being the survivor, the last one standing. Even though she's about to die, she knows that she's won; and perhaps she's been more proactive today than she's been in her entire life._

_She wants to cry or something, not stare at Bill's lifeless face, her expression even more lifeless. She wonders if anyone heard the glass breaking, but nobody has burst through the door yet, if that's any indication._

_He's not particularly overweight for a lecherous pig, but his weight beginning to build up strain in her unathletic arms, and she figures that it's now or never. There's no point in waiting to get caught._

_The last thing she does is push him over, holding on to his shirt, making sure he's pulling her down with him. With enough circumstantial and physical evidence, she can only hope that he doesn't get off for this just because he's dead. But it's too late for thoughts like that._

_She lets go of him midair and lets the both of them freefall into the congested sidewalk. She can feel her consciousness slip and it's a nice feeling._

GIVE IN.

_She's paralyzed, time standing still, and she can't make her eyelids move, let alone her lips… but you don't need to tell her twice. She's been waiting her entire life to give in._

* * *

"Yoon Seo," Ishizu says, breaking the woman out of her reverie.

Sun's face twists, her eyes still fixed on the tiny girl meekly trying to get the door to the stairwell open - _Lorna…_ Once she disappears behind the large metal slab, Sun turns around and firmly bores her eyes into Ishizu's. "I told you to call me Sun."

Ishizu looks uncomfortable under Sun's gaze, but she doesn't flinch away from it. "My apologies, but you weren't responding." An inquisitive look on her face, she asks, "What were you thinking about?"

"My last day," Sun replies quicker than she expects. She's never told Ishizu of that day and she never intended to tell anyone, but she finds herself more forthcoming in this unhinged state. "You know I studied psychology in my past life?"

Ishizu moves silently towards Sun and places her hand in the crook of a shaking elbow. "It suits you," she says in a soothing voice, feeling Sun's tension ease under her touch.

"I wasn't any good at it." Sun let out a derisive scoff. After a moment of complete silence, she speaks up again. "Hey, Ish… did you notice anything strange about Lorna?"

"Strange?" Ishizu asks. "I do not know her that well…"

"No, I mean…The way she walks… the way she talks... " Sun tries to elaborate. "She can't make eye contact with people. Have you noticed that?"

"She seems very shy and withdrawn," Ishizu offers, unsure of where Sun is taking their conversation.

"Not paranoid? Terrified? Sick?"

"After what she's been through today, I would imagine she has been under a lot of stress," Ishizu states, crossing her arms and glancing at the door to the dueling arena. "It would only be natural."

"I… I have a bad feeling," Sun mumbles, feeling her legs start to move her towards the exit. "He's still up there, isn't he?" she more states than asks, stopping right before the door.

"Are you worried about what he'll do to her?" Ishizu asks, her mind torn between trusting that her brother couldn't possibly be that depraved, and wondering what this _new_ Marik is capable of.

Sun's face tightened. "More worried about what she's going to let him do," she says, pulling on the latch and dragging the door open. "Are you coming?" She turns to face Ishizu before going inside. Ishizu nods firmly and makes her way across the room to join Sun.


	30. Off the Pill

Have I ever told you guys how bad I was at taking rejection? I would sooner trip over my shoelaces and die again than see that look on Joey's face again, and just the thought made me want to march up to Marik and ask him to kill me again.

" _My loneliness is killing me… and I… I must confess, I still believe…._ "

And yes, I was singing _Hit Me Baby One More Time_ , and that's besides the point. The point is I didn't know what to do now that everyone hated me. I had made sure to take my backpack from Zorc, who was still keeping up that 'unconscious Bakura' act of his, so I had my stuff back at least -and two chocolate granola bars. You'd think I couldn't eat anymore after I had stuffed my face earlier, but you'd be wrong. I wasn't hungry really, but fuck that; my nerves were working overtime so I _deserved_ those calories. Wouldn't you agree?

I sighed and wrapped my arms around my stomach, feeling the straps of my backpack digging into my shoulders. I hadn't eaten this much since before I died, so I was kinda hoping I had gotten over this lame nervous eating habit…

I had made my way over to the stairwell leading onto the top level of the blimp where the dueling arena was, hoping it would be empty. I could vaguely remember Seto Kaiba mentioning that there would be a recess between duels so his duel with Ishizu was still in an hour. I needed to be alone. I needed to breathe. Fresh air -that was what I needed. Somewhere I could listen to Britney Spears, cry, and eat like a glutton…

_Fuck. I'm dead and I'm still worried about getting fatter._

I immediately felt a chilly breeze upon returning to the dueling arena, and for a moment, I regretted even coming up there. My legs were crying out from the harsh biting cold and I just knew I was going to get sick… Could dead people even get sick? Clearly, I wasn't your average dead person, and yet something told me that it would take more than a little bit of cold to bring me down.

There was a nice corner that seemed warmer than the rest of the corners and I huddled in it, with the light jacket I had packed for myself set down on the ground beneath me like a picnic blanket. I let out a slight shudder and shoved my earbuds tightly into my ears, turning up my ipod to the maximum volume, making sure I couldn't listen to myself move or breathe.

" _Oh, baby, baby, how was I supposed to know… Oh pretty baby, I shouldn't have let you go…_ "

I sniffled and dug through my bag for a tissue. Of course, it was just like me to forget to pack something as critical as tissues. I couldn't go back down though, because Ishizu and Sun were down there as well as everyone else. I couldn't face them just yet. I shut my eyes and tried to concentrate on breathing steadily.

_In… One… Two… Three… Four…_

_Out… One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six…._

I could almost feel the warmth returning to my bones as I sat there, inhaling and exhaling. The same song playing on repeat and I could barely even focus on the words, just the swift beat of the drums in tune with the rapid thudding of my heart.

Mom… Dad… I wondered how they must have reacted to my death. I was their only child… Could you imagine almost eighteen years of raising someone only to have them taken away? They were supposed to watch me graduate and send me off to college and I took that all away from them. They loved me so fucking much and then I went and kicked the bucket in the clumsiest most disrespectful way. They weren't supposed to outlive me. How could I have been so stupid?

My breathing rhythm was ruined now, my heart racing and and my vision blurry. "Stupid, stupid, _stupid!_ " I hissed, trying to stop my shoulders from shuddering violently. I never learned either. I was still making _stupid_ mistakes. At least if I died again there would be nobody to miss me. "Save the fucking world?" I mumbled, recalling some of Marik's first words to me. He was a liar -a big fucking liar and I shouldn't have trusted him. _Save the world?_ How could I have been so gullible? I couldn't even save myself.

Maybe I killed Viola for nothing… I was already dead… I should have let her take me down. It would have made things better for everyone.

Like a sharp slap to the face, my left earbud was torn away from my ears and I was cruelly thrust back into real life -or at least the only thing that felt real. Real life is when you can't wake up, right? Yet for some bizarre reason, my real life was stranger than fiction, a dream that went on and on forever. I didn't like 'strange', though; I liked my old life. I wanted to go back so badly, but you can't come back from the dead; that's just not how it works…

"Such grim thoughts…" a voice chimed in, making me choke on my sobs and shoot my head to the side. "And to the tune of…" He paused and cocked his blond head to the side. "Nineties pop music?"

I pulled my shoulders into myself, trying my best to shrink into the corner and inch away from him. "Get away from me, Marik."

" _Malik_."

"Come again?" I asked exasperatedly, trying to wipe my tears away on the fabric of my sleeve, a move which proved to be a lot of anxious fidgeting since my shirt had short sleeves.

"I'm Malik… not Marik," he told me with a sigh, sticking his hands in his pockets and pulling out a wad of tissues after some searching. "You look like you need these."

With a scowl, I snatched them from him and frantically wiped my face and nose, soaking them really nicely before handing them back to Marik… _Malik_ … Like I gave two shits what that assdick's real name was. "What the fuck ever," I mumbled, my voice still nasally from all the snot in my nose.

I heard him sigh deeply and then, slowly and insistently, he told me, "No, it's not 'whatever'. You need to know that it wasn't me that did those things."

_Liar, liar, pants on fire…_

"I- I mean it. I didn't duel Mai. That wasn't me."

"I literally watched you do that," I told him exasperatedly. I was so tired of all of his fucking bullshit. "I watched you duel Mai. I watched you send her to wherever the fuck you sent her. You don't get to back out of this." My voice sounded whiny and I swear to whatever god you believe in that it wasn't on purpose, but I couldn't level it however hard I tried.

"Lorna, I'm not the only one in here - _in this body._ I'm not the only one and you know that I'm not the only one in this body," he urged. "You remember watching this, don't you? At least a little bit?"

"It's not a fucking TV show, Marik - _Malik -_ " God dammit! Why was I even correcting myself for this creep.

"It is!" he cried. "It's always been a TV show."

"Well, if it is then you're a character!" I exclaimed over the sound of the wind building up. I had a bad feeling…

"That's the thing, Lorna! I'm not. I'm not a character. I don't know why you all got bodies and I didn't, but I'm not from here and that's the truth; I promise!" His face looked extremely pale even in the darkness, and his brow was furrowed in frustration and I'm sure I looked exactly the same. When I didn't say anything, he continued. "I'll tell you everything," he told me more calmly, but the tension in his voice was still there. "The truth this time. I need… I need you to trust me, Lorna."

There was that word again… _trust_. Why was he so fixated on it? "Why do you need _my_ trust? And why do you think you even have the privilege for that matter? I may be naive, but even I have my limits," I spat out, making the air between us even icier; icy enough to freeze his dumb face off, I hoped.

"Because you need me, too," he explained simply. "I was the first one of us to die and the first one to get here. I've gone up and down the Inbetween, looking for answers and I don't know how this all works exactly, but if you trust me, I'll make sure you make it out of this in one piece."

I snorted and leaned my head away from him, against the cold aluminium railing of the arena. "I'm already dead. Does it get worse?"

"It does…" he said softly. "I can explain everything, just come back inside with me."

I groaned in annoyance, running a hand down my wet face and trying to weigh my options. On one hand, I did need answers (whether or not I could trust this _Malik_ was moot, because he was the only one willing to give them to me). On the other hand, walking out that door with him meant that all of my friends' fears were true and I was allied with the bad guys, and for whatever reason, I wanted to be allied with Yugi. I wanted my adventures to be their adventures and I wanted to feel like I would be okay no matter what, because Yugi solved everything. However, Yugi couldn't solve this; it was _my_ problem and everyone had made that glaringly clear.

"She's not going anywhere with you."

My dilemma was solved by one smooth voice, cutting through the tension and the cold like a steak-knife on butter, and whether or not she was a godsend would be something I would have to ask myself later, but for now, all I could do was stare. Sun looked every bit the goddess I took her for upon my first glance at her hours ago, standing at the door with a dull light that looked incredibly bright when it hit my eyes, her hair and the back of her olive green asymmetrical skirt billowing around her long legs.

"Oh, well, that's rich coming from you." Malik sneered at her. "At least I didn't drug her. You have the nerve to try at tell her what she can and can't do?"

"No, I'm telling _you_ , Malik. Back the fuck away from her or I'll _make_ you."

I got to my feet abruptly, not even bothering with my stuff lying on the ground. "I don't trust either of you, so you can stop acting like there's a choice here," I announced, making sure to give both of them the dirty eye. "Do you think just because my friends are upset with me that I'm free to just find new friends. Do you think I'm just some toy that's suddenly available now that my friends don't want to talk to me? Am I that incompetent that you all want to drag me around like a little kid? That you think you're even capable of manipulating and making me do whatever you want?"

Malik seemed to be at a loss for words, but Sun took it upon herself to reply, by crossing her arms and calling out, "But you _are_ a little kid, Lorna. You know _nothing_ -understand _nothing_. Whether you like it or not, eventually your path won't be linked to Yugi's path anymore… And then what? Are you just going to wander around aimlessly until you figure it out? You'll end up worse than dead like that. Do you even know what happens when you die in the Inbetween?" She paused for effect, but didn't wait for my answer. "You stop existing. You don't get to go to the afterlife and see your family and friends… you just fade away. Even in your universe, your memory slowly fades into nothing. Even your parents won't care about the daughter they lost anymore."

Every word that passed through her lips filled me up with dread and sent my heart spiralling into red alert. I didn't want to hear this… I had to hear it though. I needed to.

"You need someone to help you, Lorna," she continued. "Apologies don't come easy to me… but I'm sorry for how I treated you before. I did that for your own good. You could barely walk when Zephyr brought you to me, and as dangerous as it is, being in the Inbetween heals you…somehow…"

My entire body felt cold, taking in her words silently and running them through my mind, processing them. I felt lost again, uncertain and afraid. She was right, but I didn't want her to be.

"Lorna," she said, her voice decidedly less scary than before. This time, she was the one who sounded uncertain. "Can you tell me how long it's been… since you took your anti-depressants?" She sounded almost like my mom then…

" _Your father and I are worried, Lor'" she told me -or rather told my back. I was sitting at my laptop, trying to watch anime and she was kinda cramping my style, y'know. "You haven't been taking your medication… Your teacher called today, too…"_

_Honestly, the antidepressants were really just for show. There was nothing wrong with me. That therapist was a crock who probably got paid by the pharmaceutical company for every prescription he wrote. I had social anxiety, sure, but it wasn't that severe; and still this pisshead decided to prescribe antidepressants and they were pissing me off -I didn't like them. I took them for a while, but I didn't feel any different so I stopped. It wasn't a big deal._

" _You've been spending your entire third period in the bathroom… I thought you didn't do that anymore, Lorna…" she continued, her voice sounding more and more frustrated by the minute. "Lorna, talk to me."_

_Well, maybe it was sort of a big deal… not big, per se… maybe a mediocre deal, like a small deal. Like it was something that just happened and something that wouldn't really matter in the grand scheme of things._

… _okay so maybe the teacher caught me dozing off and I was so embarrassed I decided to never show my face in class for at least a few weeks. Hiding in the bathroom was my ideal situation for everything. And it wasn't a big deal._

" _Lorna, show me your arm," she ordered firmly._

_I rubbed my arm over the fabric of my hoodie, feeling the texture of my arm underneath. Not a big deal. Not a big deal. It would just heal and go away. I didn't need her harking about it every few seconds. I was fine. "I'm fine."_

" _If you're fine. Show. Me. Your. Arm." She stormed up to me and pulled up my sleeve, revealing my tan arm with red bumps and blisters all over._

" _Mom, stop!" I cried out, yanking my arm away and pulling my sleeve down again._

" _You're hurting yourself again," she remarked quietly._

_Hurting. It wasn't_ really _hurting… it was just a bad habit… I didn't exactly know how it started, but every time I felt nervous or afraid, I would dig my nails into my skin and scratch them. My parents used to force me to cut my nails to stop me, but you know what they say -where there's a will there's a way. However this was less like a 'will' and more like an 'impulse'. I needed to do it. I didn't know why, but I needed to. I stopped myself whenever I could, but school was stressing me out. I needed to do it._

" _I'm fine!" I insisted. "I don't need that dumb medicine."_

" _That's not for you to decide! If you think you don't need it, then let's go to Dr. Freeman and tell him. You don't just stop taking medication on your own!"_

" _No, no, no!" I cried out, feeling terror well up in my chest at the thought of going back to see the doctor. If he found out I didn't do what he told me… if he found out… He would be so upset. "We can just stop going to see him. I don't need a therapist anyway…" My voice shook when I said that. Dammit._

_She let out one of those long sighs that made me want to curl up into a ball and scream until my throat hurt. "You haven't been going to your dance class either. If you don't want to go to your dance classes, tell me and we'll stop paying for them," she scolded._

_I bit my lip and reached into my sleeve to scratch at the already bruised and scarred arm, releasing my frustration. My eyes were tearing up. "I like dance classes." It felt like a lie, but it was the only truth I had._

" _Then why aren't you going?"_

_I couldn't tell her it was the roll of my stomach when my shirt rode up my abdomen, nor could I tell her it was the fat in my arms flapping to the rhythm of the music, so disgustingly conspicuous that I couldn't even make eye contact with the dance instructor without feeling my eyeballs cringe into their sockets. All the other girls were so lithe and pretty… Only pretty girls could be dancers… I wasn't pretty… I was plain and I dreamt too high and fell on my big ass too hard…_

_It wasn't like I ever practiced at home, so maybe I would be better off quitting; and even though it was my childhood dream, giving into nothingness felt so comfortable, like nothingness was where I belonged. Everything would be okay if I just stayed in my room and never left it ever for as long as I lived._

_It's funny how true that statement would be, however… seeing as the next time I left my room after that, I died. Life's funny… even funnier when you die, apparently._

* * *

"How long has it been, Lorna?" Sun asked again, drawing me back into the moment with her voice, even more demanding now.

"Two weeks," I confessed, feeling the truth coerced out of me by her intense eyes. Like a dog to an old master, I felt my left hand creeping down my right arm. Dying left my body like a blank slate, a clean canvas. I didn't feel the impulse so greatly until that moment right then. Her eyes were like a noose around my neck and I died again for every second that she bore them into my head. I wrapped my hand around my wrist tightly. No; I was fine. I was still fine. I didn't need to fix myself or take any medicine. I wasn't sick anymore. I was fine.

Her eyes left me for one refreshing moment to glare at Malik. "She's in withdrawal…" I didn't know why she felt the need to tell him that, but perhaps, somewhere out of my visual range, there was a confused look on his face as he watched our exchange in silence. He hadn't left yet, which meant that he wanted to know how this would end. As for me, I just wanted it to end. I didn't need a fucking intervention -least of all from _them_.

"I'm not," I told her, my voice sounding completely unconvinced with itself.

Sun frowned and took a short step towards me, causing me to take a hasty leap back, nearly tripping over my own feet in the process. "I'm not going to hurt you," she told me softly.

"I- I know… I'm just… g-getting my things," I told her, dropping to the ground and gathering my belongings, stuffing them into my backpack. "I have to go," I added, rushing past Malik and nearly colliding with Sun as I made my way out of the arena. I needed space. Too many people. Too many words. Too much tension. It was all building in my head and weighing on my heart.

Jogging down the stairs, I almost bumped into someone else, and in the briefest of glances, my eyes met Ishizu's. What was she going to do up there? Well, I wasn't going to stick around and find out. Her duel was up next, right? Maybe it was time for the game to start. At any rate, I still had to get out of there before either Sun or Malik decided to pursue me. I had a feeling they were going to stay away, but it didn't hurt to put as much distance as possible between us.

Feeling an immediate rush of safety and peace of mind as soon as I saw the light of the lounge flood into my eyes, I didn't even predict that I would run into yet another person. We slammed into each other and I felt two strong hands prevent me from bouncing back and falling onto my ass. Right after that, the only things in my sight were a pair of bright green eyes and a brow tightened with concern. Having anticipated the worst, it was a relief to identify the owner of those eyes as Duke.

After steadying me, the two hands retreated and we stepped away from each other. "S-Sorry," I murmured, averting my eyes away from his. "I- I-" I stammered, my lips flapping like papers in the wind, trying to come up with a plausible excuse.

"It's okay," he told me, ruffling my hair. "We've been looking for you," he informed me with a warm smile. "Everyone was worried about you when you ran away."

I stared at him in disbelief. "Why would they do that? I ruined everything."

"Well," he began, letting the word draw out, "Joey's still kind of mad, but he wants to give you a chance to explain yourself."

I lowered my gaze at the bag pressed against my chest. "There's nothing to explain. He knows everything, and I don't deserve his forgiveness."

He clicked his tongue and then exhaled. "You don't exactly look guilty to me. I'd say you're worth a second chance at the very least." I felt my heart skip a beat and my breaths get heavier in my chest at his words.

I let out a half-hearted chuckle and forced myself to look back at his face. "Easy for you to say. I didn't lie to you."

His lips spread in a lopsided grin. "That's good to know." You know… Duke _was_ kinda cute when he wasn't relentlessly flirting with Serenity… Not that I thought he was exceptionally cute or anything -just like… objectively speaking… he was cute. Y'know… kinda pleasant to look at, too - _objectively speaking._

Don't look at me like that. _God_ , I didn't want to know how red my face was.

"And what am _I_? Chopped liver?" an annoyed voice called out from behind Duke. Had Tristan been standing there that entire time? "Stop trying to make her blush, asshole, and let's get her back before Téa explodes with worry."

"Tristan?" My voice began to shake and the quiver in my lip came back when I saw the relaxed look on his face.

"Aw, jeez, Lor'" he said, his face drooping. "Now _I'm_ gonna cry. Get over here, you knucklehead." He opened his arms wide and I almost dropped my bag rushing over to him. I couldn't wrap my arms around him, so I settled for resting my head against his chest and letting him close his arms around me. "We don't hate you, dummy. I can't believe you actually thought that," he said into my ear. Pulling me away from him he freed one of his hands to rub his nose and smile. "I oughta punch Joey in the mouth. You know just because he's mad at you doesn't mean he hates you either."

My face was really red now; I was sure of it. I didn't know whether it was because I was embarrassed or because I was about to start crying again, but Duke made sure to get in a cheeky remark about it. " _Now_ who's trying to make her blush."

Tristan only chuckled in reply. "Well, let's get you back to everyone else. And make sure you're smiling when you get there, got it?" he mock scolded and I couldn't help but turn a deeper red while nodding my head.

"I'll try."

"Atta girl," he praised with a thumbs up and a reassuring slap on my shoulder.

Okay… so maybe I overreacted just a teeny bit and they didn't hate me… Or maybe they _did_ hate me but didn't want to be asses about it, but either way, I could feel the choking sensation, the vice grip on my lungs and heart, starting to ease.


	31. Nox II

The scorching sun casts its rays down on the Nile river bank and the summer air oscillates through the trees and around everyone's feet. Almost all the people of Kul Elna are hard at work, even the children, who can't help but to splash around in the water while running errands for their parents.

One man, with strong arms and a jaw so firm it almost looks to be made of pure gold, picks up a basket filled to the brim with fish and hoists it up onto his shoulder. With his free arm, he wipes the sweat off of his brow and turns his gaze over to a group of children in dark linen, fighting the heat by taking turns pushing each other into the water. With a slight shake of his head, the man calls out "Sarenen! Stop fooling around and come help me out here!"

Sarenen is a young boy of ten with long, thin, bronze legs like the stalks of a palm tree. He turns to the man, his silver hair soaked to the roots with the fresh Nile water, with a huge grin on his face. "Yes, Papa!"

"Sa-ry!" one of the children calls out. Her sunkissed hands are on her hips and her face is in a frown. "You're not leaving already?" she asks.

Sarenen gives his friends a wide grin. "Sorry, guys. Duty calls!" He runs over to his father, and kneels down to pick up one of the smaller baskets; it is small enough that Sary can carry it, but large enough that his father can teach him about the strength of the men of Kul Elna.

He and his father walk side-by-side towards the village, keeping their pace slow to keep Sarenen's fatigue at bay. The village isn't very large, with a population so small that it resembles a large family in its dynamic, and with everyone down by the river, the streets are completely empty. It doesn't take them long to arrive at their home, a small hut built carefully out of clay; it isn't much, but it's enough for their small family.

His father pushes open the door and walks inside. "Ankhes, we're home!" he calls out, setting his basket down on the floor inside.

Sary scampers in after him and places his own basket next to his father's basket. He feels uneasy, like a swarm of locusts is eating at him from the inside. Something is wrong. This isn't his life.

"Mama?" he calls out nervously, following after his father, who slips into the bedroom.

His feet feel numb, walking after his father into the bedroom. He hasn't gone in there ever since…

" _Mama! Stop sleeping! Mama, please!"_

" _Sary, listen to me!"_

" _Mama, I need you."_

Peering through the doorway, he's not sure if he's anxious or relieved to find the room completely empty, devoid of life. His mother can't be alive; she hasn't been alive for five years.

"Sawenenenen," a small voice calls out. It sounds so young that he can't even fault it for adding in a few extra syllables to his name. A moment of searching leads him to the wall below the window where a tiny individual is sitting in a small black dress. Her coiled hair is drawn back in a long braid and her eyes are staring cautiously up at Sarenen.

"Who are you, little one?" he asks, kneeling down. His body feels heavier now as it descends and it appears he's no longer that innocent boy of ten. How old was he when he died? It seems like such an important piece of information to remember, and yet he can't even be bothered. Was he seventeen? Or perhaps closer to twenty? It doesn't really matter at this point though…

The young girl stares cautiously up at Sarenen and then hugs her dark ebony arms around her small body. She can't be more than three years old by the looks of it, so he wouldn't be surprised if she were a bit shy, however he has to remember that _she_ was the one who called out to _him_ , and after what seems like a small moment's deliberation, she finally opens her mouth. "Who aw yew, widow one?" she repeats, albeit less eloquently.

He can't help but to smile at her reaction and this elicits a timid smile in response. "Do you have a name?" he asks again.

"Nnn… Name. Nox." she babbles. At first Sarenen isn't sure she's answered his question until she says it again. "Name is Nox." Then with a huge grin she adds. "Name is Sawenenenen?"

He throws his head back in laughter. "Call me 'Sary'," he tells her. He can see her trying the new name out on her tongue, settling on "Sawy" in the end. "Close enough," he remarks with another smaller laugh. Nobody has called him by that name for over three thousand years and now it just sounds strange and nostalgic -almost painful.

"Sawy!" she cries out happily and she leaps forward to give him a hug. He's not sure why, but something about her seems familiar; maybe she feels it, too… Maybe that's why she takes to him so quickly.

" _Big brother! It hurts!"_

" _Amane! Where are you?"_

" _Big brother! Come find me!"_

Sarenen abruptly remembers where he is. He's no longer in Kul Elna… Kul Elna is a ruin now, and he should know, for he was its only survivor.

The Inbetween…

He sighs and leans against the stone wall of the cave despondently, trying to think of how long he's been trapped in here. He can't feel hunger or fatigue or any normal human urges when he's in this place, only emotions, and in his loneliness, he's dredged up plenty of emotions to keep him occupied in his solitary stay. He owes this all to the being who was once his ally and now his enemy; the dark creature that took ahold of his heart so many years ago -now, all he feels is tired and worn, like an old mule at the end of its life.

The prison's design is simple: there must always be at least one person in the cave, and therefore the last to leave it is trapped until someone else takes their place. It doesn't help that he hasn't gotten any visitors to replace him and grant him freedom -well, aside from Nox, and he isn't going to very well trap a three year-old girl in the realm between the living and the dead.

Speaking of which, what _is_ a three year-old girl doing in the Inbetween? How does someone that young and innocent get their soul trapped, unable to move on and forced to wander the vast plains of the Inbetween on her own. Someone would have to make a deliberate and great effort to stop her spirit from entering the realm of the dead and an even greater one to grant her access to the afterlife once more. He knew this all too well, of course, having spent the greater part of the last few millennia trying to escape his own cruel fate.

However, it had been only recently that the evil spirit which has haunted him for years finally decided to cast him away to this hell. Something has changed. Is Nox a part of it? He feels oddly connected to her, like she is a part of his existence -or, in less deep terms, an old familiar, although he knows for a fact that this is their first meeting.

Nox has stopped fidgeting on his lap and he can only assume that she has gone to sleep. How troublesome…

He still sees Bakura from time to time… The boy is in and out of here more often than anyone, and Sarenen almost feels sorry for him; it's days like those when he remembers what it was like to be human, to feel pain, emotions, empathy…

"What an unusual pair," a voice calls out from just beyond the cave, the owner of which is tall man only a few years older than Sarenen himself. It isn't the first time the man has come to visit Sarenen in this desolate place.

"Ken," Sarenen greets him, although their familiarity wasn't accompanied by fondness. "Are you still searching for _her_?" he asks, absentmindedly stroking the bumpy texture of Nox's hair.

"Are you still trapped in the Solitude?" Ken shoots back, deftly avoiding the question and leaning against the stone outside of the cave.

Sarenen grins. "Unless you'd like to come in and take my place." He sighs. "So… you _Guardians…_ Your job is to find people like us and send us where we belong?"

"When we can," Ken replies, sensing where Sarenen meant to take this conversation. "Your soul is linked to Zorc the Dark One… That makes you… difficult."

Sarenen grimaces, having expected an answer like that. "And what of this girl of yours?" he probes. "How do you know she is not linked to some ancient spirit of darkness?"

Ken glares at the other man and crosses his arms. "She isn't. And she's not the only one I'm after."

"She's the only one you care about," Sarenen states with a quiet chuckle. He glances down at Nox to check whether or not the rumbling of his chest bothered her, but he finds her still soundly sleeping. After a tense silence, he adds, "How old were you when she died?"

Ken clears his voice and glances away from Sarenen. "I was seven."

"How do you think she'll react when she finds out that _you've_ died?" Sarenen inquires, finding a twisted pleasure in eliciting the Guardian's anguish.

"I-I'm not -"

"You might as well be dead," Sarenen says, his eyes now humorless and his lips set in a straight line. "You Guardians are all hypocrites. I've seen enough of you in the past couple of millennia to know."

Sucking in a deep breath, Ken pushes away from the stone wall and turns his back on the cave. He simply stands, facing the bleak landscape of the Solitude, almost as though the words he wishes to say are hidden in the colorless abyss before him.

"At any rate," Sarenen continues. "She hasn't passed through here. In fact… none of them have… save for little Nox here." At that, Ken perks up. "She's why you're here, right? You're trying to capture Nox just like the rest of them." Sarenen grins. "You're afraid to come in here, though… afraid I'll leave you in here and take the girl with me."

Ken balls his hand up into a fist and holds it against the holster of his sword. Turning around, he orders, "Or I could kill you right here and take the girl anyway."

Sarenen knows he should feel afraid, sitting defenseless and weak, but he can't help but feel invigorated at the idea of danger. He hasn't been this entertained since he tried to destroy Egypt… Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but any fight is better than none. He turns his head and looks directly into Ken's eyes. "And what if you're wrong?" he asks. "What if you take Nox, you take everyone else, and you can't send them to the realm of the dead? What if they disappear forever? You wouldn't even remember her name anymore."

He sees Ken mouth something inaudible before wincing in pain. "And what if I'm not wrong and she ends up disappearing forever?"

With a shrug, Sarenen reclines back and shuts his eyes. "The Solitude is very beautiful this time of year," he notes, and Ken looks back out at the wasteland behind him. It seems to be shaded in a gray hue and even the trees look like they're weeping. It is this part of the Inbetween that is used to trap people who lose dark games. How many other lost souls are trapped here as a result of penalty games and evil spirits? It makes him shudder to think about it; after all, the Guardians are only human…

* * *

His hands shake in the cold. His body quakes out of pain. He can't move… can't breathe… but he has to. He doesn't belong here… He belongs in the realm of the living. Not here. Not on this hard, grey dirt, surrounded by smog and weeds, the pull of death nearly too strong to resist -and he still hears her voice -

" _Big brother!"_

He wouldn't be able to reach her even if he could move; she's gone and he knows that now. It's funny considering the fact that she's been dead for years already. He'd laugh at himself if he didn't feel like he was dying.

_God dammit! Why does this keep happening to me?_

You'd think he'd have some sort of immunity by now to all the shit that the Spirit puts him through, and yet…

"Bakura?"

He looks up and feels all of his pain, every ache that he tried to keep down, resurface like a beach ball underwater. She's not supposed to be here.

"S-Serenity?" he grunts, his body convulsing abruptly, a scream ripping from his throat.

"Bakura!" she exclaims, rushing to his side and kneeling down beside him, scratching her bare knees on the rough ground. She pushes his sweat-soaked bangs out of his eyes, revealing the red, swollen skin underneath. "What's happening to you?"

"You…" he mumbles weakly. "You shouldn't be here." There aren't many ways to get into the Solitude. It's a part of the Inbetween, but a part that is well-guarded and inaccessible; it makes him miserable to think that he's been here enough times to become somewhat of an expert -at least, enough of an expert to know that if she were to try and come here, then one of the seven gatekeepers definitely would have stopped her… right?

"Wh-What is this place, Bakura?" she asks him, her voice rising several octaves higher than her natural tone. She pulls his head onto her lap and he can't deny that the cold that was meant to torture him almost feels good against his face. He'd been meaning to remove his bangs for a while, but not being able to move put a bit of a damper on that plan.

"H-Hell… It's … hell…" he replies to the best of his ability. "You need to leave." There. That seems… coherent enough, and just threatening enough to get her to leave before she got hurt. When she shows no signs of budging, he mutters, "How did you even get in here?"

She hesitates and holds his body closer, like her touch alone could heal him, and he won't tell Joey that, in that very moment, he almost thought it could. "I… don't know. You've been unconscious for so long… I thought… I thought I could find you here. So I went to sleep… and I thought about you… and how you must have been suffering all alone… and I…woke up here."

He knows what she's going to say next, but he's too weak to stop her or even try to talk sense into her. "Come with me! We'll leave together! Just like before!" Something about being so close to death makes everything funny… He wants to laugh again. Of course, he's not really going to die… at least… he doesn't think so. However, he knows this pain… it's a familiar suffering.

"Serenity… I… I can't," he replies.

"Then I'll… I'll help you… I'll carry you…" she offers, sounding more and more unsure of herself with each word that came dripping out of her mouth like sweet honey. When you're this hungry, honey isn't all that appetizing, though… "Can you stand?" Her voice is shaking and her shoulders begin to shiver. She shuffles around in place, trying to figure out how to get Bakura back on his feet, but it's futile…

… she's here.

Bakura tries to keep his eyes from closing, his vision from blurring. "Serenity, leave now!" he commands raspily -his most complete sentence yet.

"N-Not without y-you!" she stammers. Her face is turning pale. She needs to leave now.

"Please!" he pleads through a scratchy throat and cracked lips.

It doesn't take more than the flick of a wrist to lift Serenity into the air by the back of her shirt, pulling her legs right from under Ryou's head and sending him slamming back into the ground. He grunts and some sadistic voice in the back of his mind chuckles bitterly and whispers, "I told you so…"

Towering behind Serenity is the Warden of the Solitude -after all, every prison needs someone to stop the prisoners from escaping. The Warden stands at two and a half meters with a long waterfall of hair so drenched in the sticky substance of darkness that whatever the true color was, it's impossible to tell now. He remembers the Warden being called the "Widow of the Wastes" by a spirit he once came across. She certainly looks the part, her filthy hair and inky dress dancing about her like spider's legs, her limbs like ashen twigs of a long dead tree.

The Warden's face is unreadable with her lips set in a straight, thin line, and her eyes only half open; it's almost as though she does her job half asleep. Serenity can't be heavier than a leaf to the Warden, and he watches the girl's hands blindly reach for him, her legs kicking the air frantically, trying to escape. Her grunting is the only noise in the vast wasteland, and the Warden is the silent killer, fading in and out of the fog like a phantom -and perhaps she _is_ a phantom, doomed to spend eternity in servitude.

" _ **Wander not in the Eye of the Moon, in the footsteps of the Wicked. Fall not where their gaze lingers. Wish not for the mercy of the Solitude or solitude will find you kneeling at its altar."**_

"Wh-What is it saying?" Serenity breathes anxiously, trying to reach back and free herself from the Warden's grasp, but clutching at something slimy and slippery instead.

" _ **Thus the Wicked bow to their Maker and find themselves free of sin. Thus their suffering is ended. Thus I am reborn. Thus the Maker rises…"**_

The Warden's voice is raspy and thick unlike anything Ryou has heard before, and her eyes seem to intensify with each word she says. The only thing Ryou knows for sure is that Serenity is making the Warden angry. "S-Serenity!" he tries to speak as loudly as he can. "Don't… fight… her." He hopes to death that Serenity has heard him, but his hopes are dashed and the Warden meets his gaze with eyes as black as her hair… No, perhaps _eyes_ wouldn't be the right term… They are yawning holes in her face, each one emitting a black substance almost like smoke -in fact, it's coming from every crevice on her body like sweat.

He sees Serenity continue to kick, but something is different about her; she's glowing now and he prays with all the strength he has left that the Warden isn't doing anything to her. All he is at the moment is a spectator, his limbs too unresponsive to even grant him the luxury of turning his head to look at Serenity's face as she struggles. And the Warden speaks on, unaware of the heat emanating from Serenity's body, in defiance to the chill that lingered about the Warden's skin like an aura.

" _ **The Wicked that once roamed the realms must fall, and thence the Maker, for He who cannot face the Eye of the Moon is doomed to fade into oblivion. His name -the whisper of the Solitude -forgotten on the lips of those He once damned."**_

"Let. Me. Go!" Serenity cries out, her heat expanding enough to give the Warden pause. "Let me _go_!"

The Warden's eyes narrow and for all the words she has spoken, her lips open for the first time, a chasm as vast as the void, and what come out are not words, but a banshee's screech. Ryou wishes he could cover his ears and close his eyes, but he can only do one, and it wouldn't do to shut his eyes when he can hear the horrors just above him.

The scream is followed by a yelp on Serenity's part as she finds herself getting her wish. The Warden flings her over Bakura's body and into one of the barren trees almost five meters away. Pain surges through her body as she sinks to the ground and finally gets a good look at the creature who held her captive. The Warden's mouth is still open and one solitary creature crawls out of the large hole, making its way up her face. This insect is followed by another and and another, until her face is so inhuman that to mistake it as such would be a crime against humanity.

Serenity knows she can't just sit there and watch whatever's happening, and Ryou wishes he could look away. It is then that the normally calm and still Warden begins to vibrate, her entire image becoming distorted, moving with the grey mist that blanketed the ground. It is unclear due to the sheer mass of insects crawling up and down her face, in and out of her mouth, but they can vaguely see her lips open wider and, out of them, a thick buzzing arm shoots out, coming directly towards Serenity's shivering and aching body.

 _Locusts!_ Ryou's mind immediately identifies the giant, menacing rod. It's comprised of millions, perhaps even billions, of locusts and they're all flying out of the Warden's mouth and towards Serenity's frail form. He doesn't want to look. He can't.

Serenity can sense the danger, widening her eyes as the swarm corners her against the tree and begins to cover her entire body from head to toe. He can't even see her anymore and the swarm just grows and grows, emerging almost endlessly from the Warden's body. "Serenity…" he moans, feeling a painful lump form in his throat. Why didn't she just leave? Why did she have to stay for him?

" _ **And thence the Maker. And thence the Maker. AND THen CE T HE m AKER. thE n CEthe MAKE R. thE DAR KnEss SHALL BE TORN topi ECe S by thE ligHtand the SUN w ill FinD HI SLI GH T in THE pITS OF SOLITUDE. ONLY LIGHT. ONLY LIGHT. ONLY LIGHT. ONLYLIGHT. ONLY L I GHT. only L IGHT"**_

She sounds like a broken record and Ryou can barely register what she's saying, his mind rejecting anything that doesn't sound like "Serenity."

"Serenity!" he groans, trying to raise his voice over the Warden's. "Serenity!" He can't feel his throat anymore, but he keeps trying, hoping that something in his voice would defy reason and logic and bring Serenity out of the swarm of locusts unharmed. The small voice in his mind chuckles at him grimly. _I told you so. I told you so._

* * *

Sarenen looks out through the opening of his cave at the sky. It never changes, always staying that same monotonous and far off grey. He's seen it change very few times in the years that he's been dead -and three millennia is nothing to sneeze at. It always means one thing, however: Someone's messing with the Warden. He smirks, watching storm clouds whirl overhead and feeling the stale wind begin to stir around him.

"Would you look at that?" he murmurs, over the sound of the blowing winds. "Two visitors and rainstorm. How exciting," he deadpans.

Ken looks startled to say the least, his eyes fixated on the clouds that look almost too black. He and the Guardians have the Warden's blessing to come and go as they please, so they have never encountered much difficulty with the Warden other than a few disconcerting glances at her from afar. She does her job silently and efficiently, but today is different. "What's happening?" he asks Sarenen.

Sarenen takes off his overshirt and drapes it over the sleeping child on his lap, shielding her from the violent winds. "Someone made the Warden mad. Weird… she's usually pretty laid back for someone who looks like she literally crawled out of hell."

"Sh-Should I go -" Ken stammers, trying to figure out just what he wants to do about this situation. Someone is clearly in trouble, but he's not meant to meddle in such affairs.

With a shrug, Sarenen replies. "Up to you, but nobody's faced her and lived. And you seem like a perfectly nice guy with a long life ahead of you." He lets out a hearty laugh and then furrows his brow. "In all likelihood, whoever she's mad at is someone completely innocent. So whoever it is, they'd better pray they've got a guardian angel because there's no way they're going to make it out alive."


	32. Whine and Cheese

The infirmary room was much less crowded than it had been before, but it still felt full, and all the pressure that had built up in my head over the past few hours was still dragging me down. It helped, however, that I had Duke and Tristan flanking me. I did still wonder to what extent I could still trust them, but I knew that I trusted them a hell of a lot more than anyone else in this universe, and it would be awfully lonely if I didn't trust anyone at all. No matter how much my mind tempted me into isolating myself, I had to resist, because I knew very well the kinds of thoughts that came into my head when I was alone. It didn't matter how little I trusted anyone, because I trusted myself the least. Heh… pathetic, huh?

"Lorna, you're… ah… back," Joey remarked flatly, bringing me back to real life. He was sitting on one of the sofas with his younger sister laying down in his lap asleep. I glanced up at his face, his mouth in a strained smile, his brow tightly knit… I couldn't look into his eyes just yet; I still needed more time for that. I nodded slightly in acknowledgement of his statement. "I… I'm really sorry for snapping at you like that. Would you believe it was these two numskulls who snapped me out of it?" he joked with a grin that was very much like the ones I was used to seeing on his face, jerking his thumb in the two boys' direction.

I smiled weakly. "It's… okay. I deserved it. I shouldn't keep things from you… I'm not good at telling people things."

He sighed and ran a hand down his face. I saw his gaze drop down to his sister -Serenity, I think it was. "I want you… to tell me everything. Even if you can't tell Téa… or the Pharaoh… or even those two," He paused and shot a meaningful glance at Duke and Tristan, who exchanged looks and began to retreat into the clinic doorway.

Tell him _everything_? Surely that would take some time… even if I could remember everything that is. The look on his face told me he'd expect no less than "everything" though. "O-Okay…" I hesitantly told him, wringing my wrist and looking down at the ground uncomfortably.

Once Duke and Tristan had left, I made my way to the door and shut it. I wasn't a big fan of opening up and telling people things, so if I had to do it, Joey would be my only witness. He was watching me more intently than I had ever seen him and I felt like an insect under a microscope. The last time I had seen Joey this serious was after he went missing and we found him.

"Aren't you going to sit down?" he asked, gesturing towards the sofa facing his.

I shuffled in place and folded my arms into myself. I had indeed been eyeing that sofa for a while now, but I felt too restless to sit down. I needed to stand. I stuttered a declination and murmured. "I'm fine… Where do you want me to start?"

"What's the first thing you lied about?" he started, his question shooting through me like an arrow. I _did_ lie, but for him to be so blunt about it… It hurt, but I deserved it…

"The voice… in my head," I replied curtly, and this piqued his interest, causing him to lean forward as much as his sleeping sister would allow. "He's been there from the very first day I got to Domino City… I didn't know it was Marik until today, though… until just now."

"Was he telling you to do stuff?"

"He told me to get to know you guys… but nothing more, I swear." I was still lying. Fuck. He already knew about Marik's hold over me in the duel against Viola, but I was certain I had more free will in that duel than I was letting on. I couldn't tell him that. He would hate me for sure...

"Second lie," he shot.

I sucked in a deep breath and stuffed my hands in my pockets. "Me."

"You?" he asked, his eyes widening. "You… You mean your name? Or… or where you came from -"

"I mean I'm dead, Joey," I snapped, feeling the corner of my eyes moisten. I'd cried bucketfuls already… I didn't need to cry anymore, but alas… classic Lorna. "I've been dead for a week. I'm probably rotting in the ground somewhere back home… If my body's still there..." I grumbled, feeling my nails dig into my hands inside my pockets.

It was a good thing I wasn't bawling yet, so I could see the light leave his eyes like he'd been punched in the gut so hard he could barely breathe. I wondered if _I_ reacted like that when I found out I was dead… "Shit, Lorna…" he hissed, scrunching up his face and looking down at the ground.

For the first time, I felt like I needed to defend myself. Watching the expression on his face change made my stomach curl up into tangled knots. "'Shit'... That the best you can come up with, Joey? I just found out I'm fucking dead and 'shit' is the best you can fucking come up with?" I cried out, feeling the volume of my voice rise and trying to keep the lump in my throat down.

"I…" He sighed and shut his eyes tightly, "I didn't mean it… like that."

Now, before continuing, I need to tell you that I wasn't a very considerate person, nor was I a very empathetic person. In fact, I was probably the worst person ever to tell your problems to because somehow, it would _always_ end up being about me, myself, and I. It's not like I did it on purpose, though I could stand to think a little bit before I spoke. I always ended up guilt tripping the people I was supposed to be apologizing to and I hated it. Maybe being a manipulative piece of trash was in my blood. Maybe Marik and I had more in common than I thought... Needless to say, the rest of this conversation was going to be a lot of whine and cheese if you know what I mean; and I would absolutely despise myself for it tomorrow.

"I'm sorry if my being dead disturbs you," I ranted on. "If it's inconvenient, I'll just go revive myself, because it's that fucking easy."

"I didn't _mean_ it like that. Damn, Lorna. That's just… _How_ are you still here?" he asked, running his hand through his hair anxiously, and leaning back against his seat.

I scoffed. "Well, isn't that the question of the day. Like I fucking know. I was supposed to move on, but for some reason I'm still here. I wonder if it's as easy as jumping off this blimp…" I mused bitterly, glaring at the shut infirmary door. "Not like I'm doing anyone any good anyway… I'm… even more _useless_ dead than when I was alive." I let out a choked laugh and rubbed the balls of my hands over my moist eyes. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, _fuck…_

_Shut up, Lorna... Just shut up..._

"Lorna… Come on, don't say that about yourself!" Joey scolded, sounding almost more angry at me than I was.

"I couldn't even live long enough for graduation… I didn't get married and have a family… I didn't go to college or get a job… I didn't give my parents grandchildren… and now, my parents… my parents…" I struggled to get the words out without feeling that lump in my throat rise higher. "I missed out on everything you're supposed to do before you die… I've never even dated anyone…" I had been virgin, too, in case anyone was wondering -I hadn't even managed to get to first base before kicking the bucket. Not like I was girlfriend material anyway… so maybe I did the world a favor by never reproducing.

I heard Joey growl. "Lorna, you _idiot_!" Ah, Joey… Ever the tactful one. "This ain't your fault!"

"Then whose is it?" I argued back. "It sure as fuck isn't _theirs_! If only I had taken my pills like they told me… I wouldn't have been half asleep… I would have…" I felt like throwing up. I wasn't supposed to tell him about that. I wasn't supposed to tell him that I was sick… that most nights I couldn't even sleep… that my best night's sleep in weeks had been in a stranger's house, in a dimension that wasn't even my own. "It doesn't even matter anymore; nothing does," I concluded, wiping my eyes and facing away from him.

He groaned. "You matter, Lorna. You matter a lot. You can't just say stuff like that."

"I lied to you, didn't I? Why are you trying to make me feel better? Shouldn't you despise me right now?" I asked, balling my hands into fists and pushing them into each other anxiously. If there was an award for guilt-tripping, I deserved it.

"Do you want me to despise you?" he asked calmly, his voice igniting pure fury in the deepest, darkest pits of my gut.

"Yes," I barked at him, though the cracking in my voice took a little of the bite out of it.

Something big and warm collided with my back, and I felt all my thoughts leave my brain as two strong arms circled my body. "I could never despise you," he stated matter-of-factly, his breath rustling the tiny hairs behind my ear. He rested his chin on the top of my head and added, "And I'm only mad at you, because you matter to me. To all of us. You're so important and you need to know that. Even if you… don't believe it right now."

I felt my shoulders shudder involuntarily and my hands cautiously travel up to the larger ones laying across my chest. My breath caught in my throat and my mind got caught in the heart beating against my shoulder blades. It was weirdly calming, like my heart was syncing up with his and my breath was slowing down. All that was left of my tantrum was the redness in my cheeks, which I was sure was due to something else entirely. Being this close to someone was new to me, and I didn't necessarily hate it. Maybe... this was the award for guilt-tripping that I mentioned earlier...

"You okay now?" he asked, his voice sending vibrations down my body.

I bit my lip and absent-mindedly fingered his hands. Those bandages around his fingers… were they from my duel against Viola? When he tried to help me? He had to duel with those on, didn't he? "You're hurt," I stated. "You didn't have to -"

"I did," he interrupted me stubbornly. "Are you okay?" he asked again. Shit. Why was he so fucking selfless? Why did he care so much?

I sighed, dropping my hands back down to my sides. "I don't think I can be okay… for a while," I told him in a low voice.

He nodded and pulled away from me, and I immediately missed the warm sensation… God, what was wrong with me?

His hands turned me around to face him and I couldn't help but to look down at my feet again. "I still want to know everything, Lorna," he informed me. "But… maybe we should take it easy, okay?"

I let out a small affirmative noise and followed him back onto the couch facing the sleeping Serenity. "There's not much left to say, though," I mumbled.

"How about you start with what Serenity was doing in that Inbetween place?"

"Serenity?" I asked, looking over at his sister, who was still fast asleep. She was a pretty sound sleeper if you asked me, not that I was complaining. It was embarrassing enough that I had been a crying, snotty mess the entire day; I didn't need to add _another_ person to the list of people whose memories I needed to erase now.

"Specifically why she said you tried to kill her," he added evenly. _Kill her?_ I couldn't remember ever meeting Serenity in the Inbetween, let alone _fighting_ her. He was being awfully chill about this, too… Noting the dazed look on my face, he stated. "She's my sister, and I would never forgive you if you were actually trying to kill her… but I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt."

I gave him a nervous nod and replied, "If I did… I don't remember it. A lot of things happened that I don't remember… And a lot of times… I think my body went on autopilot, though… now that I think about it, it might have been Marik controlling me. It's all fuzzy; I'm sorry."

His expression barely changed, but he did give me half of a smile. "That's all I want to know for now."

I took another glance at Serenity and pursed my lips. "She's a heavy sleeper, eh?"

Joey raised his eyebrows and looked at his sister. "Ah… She's just tired. A huge operation… and all this crap Marik's pulling -it's all too much for her I guess. Normally, she'd snap at you for breathing around her while she's sleeping." He let out a hearty chuckle, still trying to keep it down for fear of waking her.

Serenity winced in her sleep, her hands clenching slightly. "Nightmares?" I murmured. She looked deathly pale -even ill… I felt a heavy and sudden drop in my heart, like the abrupt descent of a roller-coaster, as I stood up to crouch at her side. My hand, half voluntarily and half involuntarily, reached up to her forehead, dropping to her cheeks and then down to her neck. "She's freezing cold, Joey."

In less than a second, Joey was on his knees beside me, examining his sister's temperature himself. His face turned from a healthy red to an icy ivory, his jaw going slack. "Wha- What's wrong with her?"

I almost felt guilty for being the bearer of bad news, but I knew that this wasn't about me; it was about Serenity -and in hindsight, I probably should have adopted that sentiment earlier. My quivering hand went to the pulse point on her wrist next, falling slack in relief when it felt the steady pulse. "She has a pulse," I reassured.

Joey seemed less reassured, however, and more panicked. "She'd _better_ have a pulse!" he bellowed, his hands cupping her face in an attempt to phase some of his body heat into her.

"She… She must be in the Inbetween," I reasoned, trying to join his effort in returning the heat to her freezing body. "I remember the last time I went… I…" _I woke up in a morgue._ But that was the last thing Joey needed to hear… I mean I _did_ wake up, but then again I was dead and she was alive, which was quite a significant difference.

Thankfully, Joey didn't seem to pick up on my half-sentence, because I wasn't too keen on letting him know the end of it. "What do we do? How do we get her out?" he demanded, sounding uncharacteristically frantic and absolutely terrified.

"I'll figure it out. I've been there." I wasn't sure how, but I knew without a doubt that I needed to get her out -that I was the only one who could. Serenity must have been one of the anchors Malik mentioned to me, but whose anchor was she? Mine?

"You mean you know how to get her out?" Joey asked, his voice daring to sound hopeful.

I nodded. No, I didn't know, but he made me feel better, and I owed it to him to return the favor. "I have to go in there somehow… and I think I know who can help me." I may not have trusted Sun and Zephyr, but they were the only people who could help me -the only people who _weren't_ Malik.

I got to my feet and informed Joey. "I'm going to go figure out how to save her. I know… I can do this." I turned on my heel and began heading for the door, but before I could lay my hand on the handle, I dropped to the ground, almost like I was tripping on air. My head suddenly felt very light, in stark contrast to the heaviness of before, and I felt like I couldn't even walk straight.

"Lorna!" He was at my side again before I could even get up. "What's happening?" His hands wrapped around my own as he helped me back to my feet and I felt even more lightheaded than before.

I gripped his elbow lightly, trying to keep myself steady. I blinked slowly, trying to make the room stop spinning. It didn't take long for me to recover, but I still had to wonder what had just come over me. "I'm fine. I just…"

"It's pretty late. You're probably tired," he told me quietly. "You can sleep in my room… I'm not going to sleep in it tonight."

No, no, no… I realized what was happening here. No, I couldn't just go to sleep. Something was happening to Serenity and I was her only hope. Why was he making me go to sleep? "I'm fine Joey. I spent the entire day sleeping."

"Unconscious isn't sleeping," he informed me.

"I'm going to help your sister, Joey," I told him firmly, snatching my hands out of his grasp. I was doing this for the wrong reasons. I should have been helping his sister because I wanted to see her safe, but I knew that was bullshit. I mean, obviously I wanted to see her safe, and I'd be an asshole if I didn't… but more than that, I wanted to be someone they could rely on - _all of them_. I didn't want to be the burden that I've been from the moment I got here. I had to make something of myself and this was my moment; if I saved Serenity from certain death along the way, that was just another plus.

* * *

It didn't take me long to find Sun; in fact she was exactly where I left her, conveniently enough -in the lounge. She didn't seem surprised to see me either, which made this a lot easier. "You need to send me into the Inbetween again," I brusquely told her.

"You want to go there… willingly?" she asked, crossing her arms and casting a disbelieving look at me.

"Do you know what you're asking?" Ishizu piped up, her hand reaching for her necklace as she spoke. "That place is dangerous."

I fervently nodded. "I know. That's why I have to go. I have to find someone."

Sun snorted. "Do you know how big the Inbetween is?" she retorted. "Finding someone in there is nearly impossible. And besides, being in the Inbetween may have healed physical injuries on your body, but your brain has been active the entire time. Maybe you ought to get some sleep."

Sleep? Not them, too… I didn't have time. "You don't understand!" I almost yelled. "She could die!"

"Who?" Ishizu inquired, her tone laced with concern. It seemed my words were reaching her much more easily than they were reaching Sun.

"Joey's sister," I informed her. "She's not awake… and she's ice cold. I just know she's in the Inbetween… and something is happening to her; I can feel it." It was just then that I realized something, so I added in a more quiet voice, "She's my anchor, isn't she?"

The two older women exchanged looks and then, almost like their actions were rehearsed beforehand, they nodded simultaneously. "She is," Sun told me. "But so long as she's alive, she must be fighting back."

"So how do we get in there?" I urged. "We need to help her before it's too late."

After a couple of seconds of hesitation, Sun let out a long and defeated sigh, brushing her long, silky hair behind her ear. "Take me to her, now," she ordered, and she didn't need to tell me twice.

We didn't waste any time making our way to the clinic, my heart beating itself into a frenzy with every step I took. I didn't really want to go to the Inbetween again, let alone fight something in there. I wondered if I could save Serenity before I had a heart attack and died again.

When we burst into the room, Joey was still exactly the same way as before, holding on to his sister's hand and barely even noticing our presence. It was Sun that immediately rushed to the front of our cavalry and got down on her knees beside him. "May I?" she quietly asked, getting a small uncertain nod from him.

I didn't like seeing Joey so silent like that, but what could I do? I wasn't like them; I couldn't just be a comforting presence, but I still needed to go see what Sun had to say about Serenity, so I got down to her level and watched Sun. She reached over to Serenity's forehead, scrunching up her brow slightly, then gently pried open her lids, taking a look at her eyes. Serenity's pupils were dilated and the whites of her eyes were covered in branching red veins.

Stepping away and crossing her arms, Sun declared, "There is a way to get into the Inbetween and go to the exact place she's in, but it'll need a lot of concentration." She then pulled a cellphone out of her pocket. "And I need to call Zephyr. You're not going in there alone."

I couldn't exactly complain, because I knew there was no way I could do this alone; though it certainly felt less heroic having Sun and Zephyr babysitting me in there. "Alright."

Ishizu stepped closer to us and took a seat on the empty sofa, her hand touching her necklace delicately, and her eyes shutting. She did that a lot. It seemed almost like a nervous tick. If I recalled, she could use that necklace to get visions of the future. I watched her with curiosity. Was she trying to predict what we would find in there? Or was she trying to figure out where Serenity was? Could her necklace even do that much?

She breathed heavily and tightened her grip on her millennium item. "Wait, Sun!" she called out, interrupting the other woman, who held her phone away from her ear and waited for Ishizu to speak.

Before another word could be spoken, Serenity tore up into a sitting position, staring straight ahead at the hospital beds in front of her. She was breathing heavily and shivering like a kitten in a snowstorm. Crossing her arms over her bust, she tried to rub away the gooseflesh that covered her skin. Her head turned slowly and she cast her gaze over the four of us, revealing the fear in her deep brown, bloodshot eyes. "Wh-Wha? What happened?" Her gaze then stopped on my face, making me feel incredibly self-conscious. "You…"

I coughed uncomfortably and tugged at my hair anxiously (and it really _was_ much shorter than before). "Yeah… me," I replied dryly.

"Hey, sis," Joey brought her attention away from me. "Are you alright?" His hand grabbed hers and his fingers rubbed her pale skin softly.

She nodded reluctantly. "Yes, but…" She trailed off and looked over at the occupied beds.

"What is it?"Joey egged her on tenderly. "Did you see something?"

Her head moved again haltingly, awkwardly. "I saw Bakura. He's not safe in there. There's some kind of demon… I… I was attacked, but I don't remember getting out…" she said, ending her sentence with unease.

"Maybe getting attacked made you jump back into your body," I offered uncertainly.

My statement was met with a shake of Sun's head. "Impossible," she informed me. "She can't pass through realms without going through the Gatekeepers first."

I raised my eyebrow skeptically. "And what makes you an expert?"

She sighed. "Because I pay attention. Either Serenity's lost her memories, or something has hijacked her subconscious. Am I right Ishizu?" she asked.

Ishizu nodded solemnly. "It would appear so." So Ishizu knew a lot about this Inbetween business? Sun sure was clever getting to her as soon as she could. Come to think of it, Sun must have been trying to figure everything out from the very beginning, while I spent all my time messing around and feeling sorry for myself. Perhaps she had the right idea…

"Is that a good thing?" Joey asked, still on edge from the scare he suffered earlier. "Does that mean she's safe now?"

Ishizu brought her hands together in her lap and absent-mindedly crossed and uncrossed her fingers. "Well, the fact that she's in control of her body right now means that she's in no immediate danger." Then to Serenity she added, "Be very conscious of any changes in your body right now, however. Things that happen to you in the Inbetween can affect your physical body, so if anything changes, please come and talk to either Sun or me. If something truly has taken over your subconscious, then you'll eventually have to go back and leave the proper way- through one of the Gatekeepers."

"Y-You mean like… _Mystical Elf_?" she asked in small voice, prompting Ishizu to nod. There was a slight quiver in Serenity's voice when she replied, "Alright, but what about Bakura! He's stuck in there and he's badly hurt."

Sun blew a puff of air into her bangs and placed one hand on her hip. "He's fine," she told her nonchalantly.

"H-How can you _say_ that?" Serenity objected, a bit of hysteria leaking into her voice. What _did_ she see in there? "He was -"

"Lorna, tell her," Sun commanded, interrupting Serenity rudely.

I cleared my throat and scratched the back of my head, taking a seat on the sofa beside Ishizu. Interrupting Serenity was rude enough, but now I felt like an accomplice to the formation of that knot in Serenity's brow. "Um… Well, she's… uh… right," I said uselessly. "This _is_ what's supposed to happen. He'll get better in no time," I tried to say with as sunny a disposition as I could force. Was I sure about anything I was saying? Nope. But him being unconscious at this point _was_ canon, so perhaps I wasn't too far off.

Serenity's big eyes scrutinized me silently, making me shrink back into the couch. She clearly thought everything I was saying was bonafide bullshit. My saving grace was the clinic's intercom calling out, " _The last match of the semi-finals between Seto Kaiba and Ishizu Ishtar will start in five minutes. We kindly ask that both contestants get in their positions. The match is about to start._ "

Ishizu rose to her feet and smoothed down the skirt of her dress. "It is time for us to leave, Sun," she declared, turning her head towards Sun. With polite nods, the two women turned and exited the room.

I got up as well, shuffling towards the door nervously. They probably needed their space, so I would let them talk and come back later… or never. Maybe I could take up Joey's offer on that bed if it was still available. I'd have to figure out where his room was, but at least if Zephyr found me wandering, I could, to a fair degree of certainty, say that he wouldn't drug me and knock me out.

"Lorna, wait."

My body froze, my hands instinctively going to my elbows. "Yes?" I replied to him sheepishly.

"Can you stay?" he pleaded, sending shockwaves through my already drained body. "We didn't get to spend any time with you today."

"Oh… o-okay," I murmured. Serenity's eyes still followed me warily as I moved back towards them and plopped back down on my couch.

There was a short moment of silence before either of us made a move; luckily, it ended with Joey beaming at me before saying, "So… Tristan tells me you were pretty badass today."

"Was I?" Source? When was this? That didn't sound like me at all.

"He said you kicked Rex Raptor's ass and sent him crying home," he boasted, lounging in his seat and giving me that warm Joey Wheeler smile that I had grown so accustomed to.

"I guess I _did_ send that sexist pile of worms crying, didn't I?" I agreed, giving him a smile of my own. I looked around for my backpack to show him the card I won, but it was neither on my back nor anywhere else in the room. "Shit… I left my bag with Duke and Tristan. I was going to show you the card I won." There was a hint of dejection in my voice, but I shook it off and put on my relaxed face.

"Do you wanna go get it?" he asked.

I shrugged. "It's… not that important. Tell me how your duels went today," I said and, the moment he began to recount his own adventures to me, I felt all my tension disappear. I doubted all of this was my creepy and thinly veiled feelings for him being reciprocated; his eyes still wandered every so often over to the beautiful comatose woman in one of the infirmary beds. But this was... nice.


	33. The Detour

I was fast asleep when life decided to fuck me up the ass again; and I don't mean that in the physical sense, because if I did, then at least _someone_ would be fucking me. No; I totally meant it in the Murphy's-Law-And-Satan-Had-A-Baby kind of way. Do you know how long it takes for me to fall asleep? A long fucking time. Do you know who just got woken the fuck up? Me. It's like I can't even sleep without something going the fuck wrong -and I was dead, so I mean, the quality of my life had a default of "shitty" and just sorta alternated between "super shitty" and "not as shitty as it could be"

True to his word, however, Joey let me sleep in his bed while he slept in the clinic with his sister, who he had placed under the physician's supervision (to the poor girl's distaste). He wasn't prepared to take any chances with her, and rightly so. Whatever had happened to her last night was fucking scary. However, that was beside the point at the moment.

In both an abrupt and violent manner, I snatched away from dreamland (goodbye, my dark prince, Sebastian Michaelis), and thrust back into my life (death?). I let out a startled yelp and gripped the sheets as what seemed like an earthquake knocked me into the floor.

"Oh… fuck…" I moaned helplessly as my head collided with the floor. I felt like my entire brain was shifted from one side of my skull to the other and pinched the bridge of my nose wearily, trying to keep my dizziness from making everything much shitter -if you know what I mean. Cautiously, I grabbed the side of the bed and hoisted myself up off the ground, trying not to slip again, only to -wait for it - fall back down again, my feet sliding against the blankets, my back slamming against the ground, this time however, the ground seemed more irritated by the impact than I was.

"Ah… Ow…" the ground hissed from beneath my back. "Not how I imagined waking up with you on top of me, but I'll take it."

That shameless flirting…

"God dammit, Duke."

"S-Sorry," he replied with a pained chuckle. "I couldn't help myself… Now, can you get off of me?"

Yeah, this was also not how I imagined being on top of a boy either, and I was pretty sure my ears were getting impossibly red. "Y-You'd better not be enjoying yourself!" I snapped, sounding more nervous than sassy, as I rolled onto my stomach. I planted my hands on the ground, preparing to push myself up, and caught a glimpse of that infuriatingly cocky grin on his face. I glared at him for a moment before finally standing up.

It looked like what Joey had neglected to mention was the fact that he had offered to let two other people share his room as well, Duke and Tristan. The former was attempting to get to his feet, while Tristan was still sprawled out on the ground mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like " _Serenity_ "... The perv. With a long sigh, I stepped towards him and gave him a nice, hard kick to his side. That woke him up _real_ good.

He was startled to his feet, holding his arms out in front of him, ready to fight his unknown assailant, while Duke and I were the only ones to be seen. I gave him a pointed look, which was made even more biting by the mocking laughter that Duke was struggling to keep in.

"Hey, what gives?" Tristan growled, alternating his accusatory gaze between Duke and me. As an answer to his question, however, the blimp shuddered aggressively once more, knocking the three of us into each other and back into the floor. "Oh…" came his reply, muffled by the underside of Duke's arm.

It took me one drowsy second to realize that I was holding on to both Duke and Tristan's shirts for my life. I slowly released my grip and lifted myself off of them, feeling sufficiently mortified. "Right. Well, I'm going to pretend that didn't just happen," I stated, dusting myself off and carefully heading towards the door.

"Aw, c'mon. You must have enjoyed it a little bit," Tristan teased, making my brow twitch. "I've been workin' on the ol' pectorals. Could you tell?"

I let out a choked shriek. I wasn't sure what was worse: the fact that he had just asked me that or the fact that I actually _could_ tell -not that I was going to give him that ego boost he was fishing for. "We are _not_ talking about this, Tristan!" I heard the boys laugh from behind me and chose to ignore them.

"Where are you going?" Duke asked. "It's probably just turbulence. We're on a blimp; remember?"

I turned around to look at them and tried to become aware of my own body again. My heart was thudding in my chest and bile was rising to my throat. Was I just overreacting? Was I just letting myself panic again? Every fibre of my being was telling me that something wrong was happening, but with my well of canon knowledge slowly depleting, I couldn't really argue against that feeling.

"No, something is wrong," I told them firmly. "Can we just… Can we go ask Kaiba what's going on?"

Tristan frowned slightly and replied. "He's probably a- _OOF!_ " Before he could finish, the entire vessel shook again, and this time, it cemented my fears. I managed to stay on my feet when it happened, holding onto the door handle so tightly my knuckles paled, but the boys were down on the ground again, limbs tangled and faces obscured. "You know what… Let's pay Kaiba a visit." Tristan resolved in a drooping voice, matching his tone to the hair sticking to his forehead.

* * *

We weren't the only ones to sense the blimp's shaking; on our way to the cockpit, we found the rest of our group, as well as Zephyr, who appeared a bit out of it as he rushed ahead of everyone else. He looked like he had dressed himself hurriedly, while his hair looked like he had just emerged from a rainstorm. His haste didn't make much of a difference, however, as we all burst into the cockpit at once.

Sun was already there, standing dutifully at Seto Kaiba's side. She eyed us briefly before whispering something into the CEO's ear. When did _she_ start working for KaibaCorp? You know what? It didn't matter. It was four in the morning and this fucking blimp wouldn't stop shaking. I needed to stop overworking my precious few brain cells trying to figure shit out that didn't even affect me, when it was very likely those brain cells weren't going to get replaced anytime soon.

Clearly, the blimp glitching out wasn't part of the plan, since the look on Seto Kaiba's face when he spotted us could have poisoned the entire ocean beneath us. You know, maybe if you squinted a little, you could kinda see the water turning black as death and, slithering out of the inky abyss, a little puff of green smoke in the shape of a skull sitting atop two crossed bones.

"What's up with the turbulence?" Joey demanded, and in a slightly less aggressive tone, Tristan added, "Yeah, some of us _sleep_ past five…"

Just then, the ship jerked again, and I immediately found myself taking a couple of steps back towards the wall. I was going to fetal-position this one out hope for the best.

"Careful," Zephyr warned, grabbing my wrist and preventing me from stumbling back.

"Don't touch me," I growled, glaring at him and snatching my hand away. I gingerly slid down the wall and made sure I was sitting tightly. I let out the breath I had been holding in and covered my face with my hands.

_Okay… breathe, Lorna._ Was the blimp going haywire because I existed or was it canon? Why couldn't I remember anything past season 2?

"I've lost control! Alcatraz's computer refused access! There's no signal from the tower!"

"That's impossible!" Mokuba's voice rang out.

I removed my hands and looked up at the monitor. There was an island filling up the screen, with a giant unusually shaped tower protruding from it. Was that supposed to be our destination?

"What's that place?" Tristan inquired.

"That's where we're holding the finals -Alcatraz," Kaiba replied tensely, his shadow growing larger and larger in sync with his mounting frustration. "That _pitiful_ wreckage is all that's left of the founder of KaibaCorp, Gozaburo Kaiba…" Yugi perked up in interest upon hearing the name.

"Our step-dad… Gozaburo Kaiba," Mokuba explained, "tried to take over the world using the massive military empire he founded. These ruins are all that's left of his ambition. After he died, my big brother turned KaibaCorp into a gaming company. That island used to be the central headquarters until my brother tore down the all military factories. Then he built that duel tower on top of the rubble as a symbol of the new KaibaCorp -"

"That's enough, Mokuba!" the elder Kaiba scolded, causing Mokuba to flinch and then nod obediently. It looked like he had overshared and his brother was none too pleased.

I sighed and tried to tune out the conversation, reaching into my overall pockets and pulling out my ipod, and, just for the record, I did not condone sleeping with fragile electronic devices in your pockets, especially when you're not sure whether said device (and all the music on it) exist in this dimension or not. If I was going to go through this without my tunes, I might as well jump into the ocean and end my life for real. So whatever was happening with the blimp, it would have to take a backseat to the sweet sounds of Aaliyah.

A small part of me waited for a snide jab at my inability to effectively prioritize, and the feeling was only met with an odd emptiness at the back of my head -kinda like when you scream into a canyon and your voice doesn't echo back. I suppose that was a good thing; the last thing I needed was ol' Two-Face McBackstabber jabbing his gross millennium stick into my brain like a dog that won't stop humping your leg.

I felt someone at my side and opened my eyes to find Téa resting against the wall beside me. She gave me a shy smile and I paused my music just in time to hear her ask, "How are you feeling?"

"Physically? Or mentally?"

She smiled. "I'd imagine you're not doing too well either way. Sorry, it was a pointless question."

I gave her a reassuring glance. "Well, if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that in the past couple of weeks, I'd be richer than Kaiba. But I do appreciate it."

"What are you listening to?" she inquired, and I handed her one of my earbuds, playing the music again and trying to drown out the conflict and agitation playing out in the scene before me.

I sighed and wrapped my arms around my torso in a futile attempt to rub the cold away from my arms. It was obvious that none of Kaiba's budget went into heating. Curse my decision to wear short shorts, leaving the blotchy skin of my legs vulnerable to the elements. By the time we got to Alcatraz I would be frozen -you could even say… I would catch my death. Ha ha… Wow; it certainly didn't take me long to start making shitty jokes.

"This is nice," Téa's voice tore me away from my thoughts. Her eyes were gently running over my face and her hair cascaded down her cheek softly. How did she manage to look like she had gotten a full eight hours of sleep? She was surely cheating somehow.

I cleared my throat and looked down at my lap. "Yeah… it's the only thing I have left to remind me of home. I used to sit for hours with my headphones in… just thinking about my life."

"That must have been lonely," she noted, her voice delicate and concerned.

"Not really," I replied quickly. "I mean, I didn't really have that many friends, but I didn't need them."

"Everyone needs someone," Téa began. Ah… yes, I dissed friendship in front of the official Friendship™ spokesperson.

I shrugged. "I had my mom and dad. And they had to put up with me." Don't you _dare_ fucking cry, Lorna Beck. Every time I thought about my parents, they just felt farther and farther away. It made me want to ram my head into the wall and get rid of all those pesky feelings. I really wouldn't ever see them again, would I? I mean, I would once they died maybe… but that was cruel -waiting for them to die.

"Nobody else?" she asked.

After a bit of reconsideration, I added, "Well, I had my aunt and uncle, too. They came to visit sometimes with their kid. He was pretty cute… a bit of a handful though…"

"Oh, I love kids!" Téa exclaimed in a low voice. "How old was he?"

"He was…" I sighed. "Ah… no, he _is_ seven. I mean, he _should_ be seven right now. His name was Kenny -short for Kennosuke… But that's a bit of a mouthful for a little kid, especially when you're living in the US."

Téa let out a lilting laugh and moved her hair behind her ear. "You know this is really the first time I've heard about your life before you came to Domino City."

My face reddened as I shrugged her comment off. "Yeah, my life wasn't that interesting. I had a pretty ordinary life… I was a little weird and a bit of a loner, but it was fine."

"You don't sound very happy with it," she noted leaning in idly.

I let out a short breath and crossed my arms. "It wasn't very long, so I can't exactly say I'm satisfied with how it turned out."

"What… do you mean?" she gasped, her eyes widening.

Shit… I had to break it to all of them eventually, wouldn't I?

Just then, as though to save me from the awkward conversation I was about to have, the blimp jerked really quickly, and like the sharp descent of a roller-coaster, we were going down. I felt the vessel hit something and all the monitors in front of the pilot were going haywire. Téa quickly handed me back my earbud and grabbed my hand tightly. She was holding my fingers in uncomfortable positions, but I didn't want her to let go. "Joey, what's going on?" she asked, trying to figure out what the two of us had missed.

Duke, the person closest to us, was the one to answer as he reached blindly for something to hold on to. "Someone hacked the ship. We're changing course!" Unable to find something, he came crashing down against the wall at Téa's side. "Ah… shit," he grunted, his hand reaching behind him to rub his back.

By the time the blimp had managed to start its ascent again, everyone was on the ground, holding on to all manner of things and struggling not to be flung away.

"Do something, Kaiba!" Joey growled, his arms wrapped protectively around his little sister, nearly obscuring her from our vision with his broad chest.

The blimp seemed to have steadied quite a bit now that it was fully under the hacker's control and everyone was starting to get back up to their feet. I decided that this wasn't exactly the best time to spice up my life, so I switched off my ipod and put it back in my pocket. I could still feel Téa's hand wrapped around mine and both of them were starting to sweat a bit, so I slowly eased myself out of her grasp before giving her a shy smile and using the wall to get myself off the ground.

Once I was up, I lent my hand to help Téa up as well, and she accepted it graciously, touching my shoulder lightly to steady herself. She directed her gaze to the front of the blimp and muttered, "Lorna, look at that."

I turned my head to look in the same direction. Just as the pilot was typing away, trying to get some sort of response from the console in front of him, the largest monitor's image distorted and turned to static, almost as though it were seeking a signal of some kind. Was it supposed to be a message from the hacker?

"You guys alright?" Duke asked. He was standing now as well, leaning against the railing and clinging to it slightly in case of another sudden quake.

I gave him a nod and then turned my head back towards the monitor. An image slowly came into focus -a… kid? He looked like he was no older than Serenity with a dishevelled mop of turquoise hair on his head and bangs covering his forehead. He was staring right at us through the screen with a smirk on his face and malice in his dark blue eyes.

"Just who the hell are you?" Kaiba demanded, his face so red that you would think it was trying to compete with Duke's vest.

**_That's Noah… Kaiba's step-brother and Gozaburo's biological son._ **

My hand whipped to my head, startled by the intensity of the voice. He wasn't even trying to hide who he was -his voice was completely clear in my head, like he was in the room right next to me. I glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed my abrupt movement, but everyone was still fixated on the boy on the screen.

_I thought I told you to stay out of my head._

**_Well, I need to see what's going on._ **

_Well, why don't you bring your lazy Egyptian ass down here instead of invading my privacy, you dirty wet sock?_

**_'Dirty wet sock'?_ **

_Fuck off._

**_You know you're making a mistake choosing them._ **

I resisted the urge to groan very loudly and make a very unflattering face; not for Malik's benefit, of course, but because the last thing my friends needed to worry about was the fact that he was still trying to talk to me.

_I'm not choosing anyone. I'm choosing myself. And doesn't your conscience bother you at all when you act like a piece of shit?_

Proving my point, he chuckled and I swear to whoever that in that moment I wanted to stick my arm down his skinny little throat and pull his intestines out. **_You're much bolder in your head than you are in real life. I like it._**

I scoffed and then attempted poorly to disguise it as a cough when I got a raised brow from Duke. _Flattery won't get you anywhere, bozo._

**_And here I thought we were friends. I'm sad now._ **

_Don't mock me._ I could feel my heart burn with an intense frustration that almost felt like rage, but not quite. Why wouldn't he leave me alone? Did he get off on fucking with me? Was that his kink? And why me?

I heard him laugh in my head -clearly I wasn't the only one being bold. Usually, his voice was reserved and emotionless in my head, but now he didn't even care. He must have known he was pissing me off, which was why he kept doing it.

_You're insufferable -you know that, right?_

**_I do try._** I could practically see the smug smirk on his annoying face.

God dammit, I shouldn't have been indulging him, but he was in my brain and I couldn't concentrate on anything other than the sound of his voice.

"Hey, Lorna?"

A hand on my shoulder reminded me that people other than Malik were much more worthy of my attention at the moment, and I turned to look at Téa. "Yeah?"

She frowned slightly. "Are you alright?" I really needed to keep a tally of how many times people were asking me that.

"Uh, yeah. Why?" I asked, feeling anxious. I couldn't let them know Malik was still talking to me. I needed to handle this on my own.

"You haven't been answering me," she replied, her tone laced with concern.

"S-Sorry… I spaced out," I murmured, looking away from her. I didn't think she completely believed me, but her face told me that she had accepted my explanation for now -I still needed to be careful next time -not that I'd allow for a "next time" to happen.

She gave me a half-hearted smile. "I was saying that the blimp is docking somewhere."

I looked over at the monitor. Sure enough, I could see a giant metallic structure on the screen and we were pulling up over its helipad. "Where are we?"

"Not sure," she replied with a shrug and then placed a hand on her hip, her eyes trained on the giant monitor. "The place just came up out of the ocean."

"For real?" I asked. Fucking rich people and their fucking undersea lairs…

The entire room dimmed as we descended into the gigantic structure, and immediately I remembered my things. What if we wouldn't be able to get our things back? I fidgeted anxiously, turning around to look at the door and then back at the monitor. No, no… Maybe it would be fine… I hoped.

**_You seriously_ ** **don't _remember anything from this season?_**

_WHAT IS YOUR FUCKING DEAL?_

"L-Lor'?" Tristan's voice interrupted. I noticed that Téa had flinched away from me, stunned by the volume at which I had just spoken.

Everyone in the room had turned to look at me. Shit. What did I do? I was panting and my arms were crossed over my chest tightly. I moved my eyes around the room, glancing at each of the people whose eyes bore into my head. "U-um… I…Did I… say that out loud?"

Two people, who I definitely _didn't_ need giving me shit, were giving me knowing looks -Sun and Zephyr. They knew exactly who that shout was meant for -not that I was about to indulge them by telling them they were completely right.

From Sun, my gaze turned to her right and landed on Kaiba, whose face was unreadable. He had a frown on his face, but it was less severe than his usual frowns, so perhaps in retrospect it may have been the closest thing to a smile he could manage -y'know outside of his sarcastic and maniacal ones. "Oh, you did, Beck. Very loudly, in fact. But you _did_ take the words right out of my mouth." he informed me, turning his back on me and raising his fist at the static on the giant monitor.

One of my favorite things about Kaiba was his ego; his innate need to bring everyone's attention back to himself took everyone's attention away from me, which thusly made Kaiba my favorite person in the room. I still felt mortified that I had yelled like that, but maybe everyone would just let it go and cut me some slack?

I awkwardly hunched over and rubbed my arm, leaning back against the door, watching everyone dismiss my strange outburst in favor of trying to figure out Noah was up to. Honestly, it was a great decision because literally nothing about me was interesting and if I were them, I would ignore me, too.

Just then, the blimp shuddered slightly, indicating that it had landed, and right on cue, Noah reappeared smiling menacingly. "Would you get off the blimp, please, Seto?" he asked in mock kindness. "The rest of the duelists, too, of course."

"And what if I say 'no'?" Seto snarled at him. I felt my stomach twist up in knots. This kid just took control of a massive KaibaCorp blimp and flew it to his super-secret lair. Did Kaiba _really_ have to act like he had any say in whatever was going to happen next?

There was a loud noise like robotic limbs moving and the monitor changed to show us a view of the docking area that we were in. Lining the walls were what looked like dozens of guns and if I were to guess, I'd say they were all aiming for us. "I'm not giving you a choice," came Noah's chilling reply.

I felt myself being pulled to the side, a large hand gently wrapped around my left arm. Duke nodded slightly when our eyes met and he muttered, "Stay close, okay?"

I replied with a tiny smile, blushing at the contact. I mean, I appreciated it because I was very liable to get lost in a mess like this, but _still…_

The descent from the blimp was solemn and surprisingly organized. At first, Kaiba decided to act like a little shit, provoking Noah to fire his guns at the blimp (which was surprisingly bulletproof -four for you, Kaiba), but we eventually did as we were told. The CEO himself was front and center (like he would settle for being anywhere else) while the rest of us were walking in twos or threes behind him. I stuck close to Tristan and Duke at the back of the group trying not to shiver as we passed by the cold metal panels on the walls. And how did Kaiba even know where we were supposed to go anyway? Maybe it was his special Kaiba instinct.

"This place is huge," I whispered to the boys on either side of me as we passed through a pair of large metal doors and into a huge room. I only had the briefest moment, while the doors behind me slammed shut and did away with the only sliver of light in the room, to examine my surroundings; there didn't appear to be anything notable however.

The entire group buzzed restlessly, some calling out into the darkness and some talking amongst themselves, until a blinding light shined and silenced them all. Out of the light, almost like they simply faded into existence, five men stepped forward, each wearing a suit and tie. Were these old farts working under Noah? Watching the wrinkles on Kaiba's forehead get even deeper than they already were, I figured that it was safe to assume they were.

The moment one of them opened his mouth, however, a searing pain shot through my body, like a jolt travelling from my temples to the tips of my toes. My knees buckled and I latched on to the nearest sturdy objects to keep from plummeting to the hard metal ground, digging my nails in with a vengeance. A shrill beep filled my ears. I couldn't breathe, let alone scream.

**_Are you okay?_ **

_Air. I need air. I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm dying._

**_Lorna, answer me. Can you hear me?_ **

_I don't wanna die._

Faces filled my vision, Téa's face being the only one I could recognize. She stared straight into my eyes. I could feel myself start adjusting to the pain, my hands losing their tension and slowly retracting. Duke and Tristan were both hugging their arms to their bodies, winces of pain stuck on their faces. Did I do that? My head hurt too much to speak… I would have to apologize for this later.

I felt something cold and slippery slide down my lips and tasted something foul. My gut lurched and I felt a burp rise to my throat; I covered my mouth, letting it out along with the taste of rotten eggs and iron. I raised a hand to my lips and saw something black and runny staining my fingers. More of what felt like acid reflux came from my lips; and with each lurch of my chest, my body hurt more. My throat felt like it was being torn apart from the inside.

**_Lorna… Hang in there…_ **

_It hurts… Please… be quiet…_ His voice was so overwhelming, hitting every single one of the taut cords in my mind, playing a disorganized aching rhythm in the back of my head.

"What are you doing to them?" someone roared, sending a whole new knife through one of my temples and out the other. _Them? Who's them?_

Straining my vision, I could see three other people on their knees: Zephyr, Sun, and Serenity. Serenity met my gaze and mouthed something at me; I couldn't even tell what she was trying to say, but it was likely she thought that whatever she was feeling had something to do with her being my anchor. Did my being in pain somehow affect her? I watched with a form of agony-induced lethargy as she shut her eyes slowly. That same black substance was running down her face, secreted from her tear ducts and her nose; and not only that, but thin wisps of smoke poured out of her mouth.

I was the only one left on my feet, but I could sense the muscles in my legs involuntarily relax, pushing me into Téa's waiting arms. Her touch was like a literal flame, singing my cold skin upon contact, making everything even more unbearable. What was going on? Why was this happening to me?

The last thing I could see before passing out was the floor disintegrating beneath everyone's feet and a startling shade of blue.


	34. Leap of Faith

"Mmh… What happened?" I groaned, although, my articulation wasn't really at its best at the moment, so it was more of a drowsy "mm-whahaben" I could barely get my eyes open, but I knew there was something damp and prickly like grass beneath me, rubbing against my legs as I gently stirred them awake.

"Y-You're asking _me_?" came Zephyr's voice in response, just as tired as my own.

I grunted, planting my hands on the dirt and pushing myself up into a sitting position. I blinked in quick succession to get my eyes adjusted to the sunlight, and assessed my surroundings. If I wasn't so freaked out, I could have called this place beautiful. We were in a vast plain surrounded by flowers in every single color you could think of, and off in the distance, I could see a vast, seemingly endless forest.

"Is this the virtual world?" Sun asked, being the first of us to rise to her feet and dust herself off. "This isn't how it's supposed to happen," she informed us.

"It's a TV show in your world, too?" I inquired, standing up at her side and gazing down at the flowers I had ruined with my chubby fingers.

"You could say that…" she answered vaguely, abruptly turning her attention to nudging one of the flowers on the ground with her shoe.

"I think it's a TV show in all our worlds," Zephyr answered, rubbing his neck and sighing as he got to his feet as well. "I mean I don't think it's the _same_ –uhh –show, but… Sun's right. We were supposed to all end up together with everyone else. It's just the three of us here as far as I can see."

"D'you think it had something to do with that weird headache that we all got before we passed out?" I reasoned, placing a hand on my hip and letting the wind blow away the sweat on the back of my neck.

Zephyr bit his lip in contemplation and craned his head around. "If it did then something's missing, don't you think?"

I raised my brow quizzically. "Missing? What's missing?"

Before he could open his mouth to reply, Sun interjected. "Serenity. She was affected as well, remember?"

"M-Maybe that was just because she's my anchor. Doesn't she feel the things I do or something?"

"She does?" Zephyr asked, looking genuinely taken aback. "How did you figure that out?"

"Ah… call it a gut feeling," I said dismissively. Their remarks concerned me, though. I wasn't familiar with this season, but if they said we weren't supposed to be here then they must have been right. "So what _was_ that headache all about, anyway?"

For a moment, I didn't expect them to have an explanation, but Sun, as always, had the answer at the tip of her tongue. "Our physical bodies don't really exist, they're only a manifestation of our consciousness in the realm of the living. When they tried to take our consciousness to the virtual world, we glitched out. Or more likely, our bodies glitched out, since they're not really supposed to exist."

Okay so… _how exactly_ did she know all this stuff? I crossed my arms over my chest and coughed uncomfortably. "You make it sound like we're machines or something…"

She scoffed. "Well, I'm no expert, but I'm guessing that we're only 'alive' so to speak by the will of another human. And whatever is manmade can't be perfect."

"Thus the 'glitching out'" I added. "So do you think we never made it to the virtual world?"

"I doubt it," a new voice responded. The three of us turned on our heels to find the speaker. "Or I wouldn't be here."

"You!" I choked out in recognition. I could tell by his MC Hammer pants and his showy hat that this was none other than Peten. That resolved all my doubts; we must have been in the Inbetween.

"Lorna!" he greeted like he was meeting a long-lost friend. "How have you been?" Sun and Zephyr tensed and gave Peten wary looks. The clown sighed in exasperation and put his hands on his hips. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm here to help you guys."

"The last time you came to help me, I nearly drowned," I told him, grimacing at him.

"You tossed me off of a mountain me the last time I was here," Zephyr added.

"And you buried me alive," Sun informed him matter-of-factly.

Looks like I wasn't the only one who was fucked over by this asshat. He didn't really seem all too bothered by these accusations, though, as he chuckled and put a finger up. "Ah, ah, ah! But you _didn't_ die, did you? Now, if I wanted you to die, you'd be dead."

"Are you fucking serious?" Zephyr spat. "You expect us to believe you have our best interests at heart?"

Peten shrugged and cocked his head to the side. His black and white mask reflected a wry smile, but his voice was deadly serious as he spoke. "I expect you to believe it, because I brought you here. And it wouldn't really help me if you died again after all the trouble I went to."

"And why would you do that?" Zephyr asked, his voice steady and low, almost menacing.

Peten chuckled derisively and bowed in mock apology. "Ah, I forgot that you two ended your lives by choice. Isn't that right?"

I whipped my head around just in time to see my companions' faces turn sour at Peten's words, their lips taking on similar pursed demeanors. "B-Both of you -" … committed suicide… Though it was best that I didn't finish that sentence. In hindsight, it was a tactless and thoughtless remark. I wasn't an idiot; the looks on their faces said it all. "Just tell us what you want!" I demanded, looking back at Peten's emotionless face. "Why did you bring us here?"

He crossed both his arms and his legs and leaned forward. "It's a secret."

A secret? I could almost taste the venom on my tongue when I lashed out at him. "Oh, yeah? Well, I bet your mom wasn't a secret!" Not my finest moment. "Because… of how many people… have…"

"Not your best work, Lorna," Peten noted wagging his finger at me as he walked past me, stopping a few paces away with his hands on his hips, facing the forest.

I heard Sun let out a loud groan. "I'm surrounded by morons," she hissed.

Like I said, not my finest moment.

"Enough!" Zephyr snarled, snapping us out of the awkward mood. "Who else is here?"

"I'm glad you asked. The party's all waiting for you in the Solitude." He jerked his thumb back and tilted his head slightly.

"What's that?" I asked ahead of everyone else, not liking the idea of a place called "The Solitude" Just imagining it sent shivers down my spine.

"Oh, it's not too bad… kinda bleak and gloomy, and the Warden's a bit of a pain in the ass, but otherwise, it's nice… and roomy. Great place to spend an eternity of isolation and suffering."

"And what if we don't want to go?" Zephyr chimed in.

"Oh…" Peten said in a low tone, turning to face us. "I really think you do want go. It would be a shame… if anyone you knew were to… say… _die_ in there. You know what happens to spirits who are destroyed in the Inbetween, don't you?"

"W-Wait," I yelped. "Who's in there? Tell us!"

"And ruin the surprise?" He laughed sinisterly and turned on his heel. For the first time, I saw the flowers wither and die underneath each of his footsteps. He waved his hand, gesturing for us to follow him, and reluctantly we did.

He led us to a great wall, one that seemed to go on forever and ever in both directions, with a single gate at its center, but I didn't have time to see how far it went as I stared in surprise at a very familiar figure blocking our way through. Clad in layers of violet from the tip of his hat to the soles of his boots, _Dark Magician_ hovered before us, looking more alive than I had ever seen him (which wasn't saying much since the most I'd seen of him was his trading card). His eyes apathetically looked us over; his arms were crossed over his chest.

"Mahad! Buddy! How have you been?" Peten greeted, taking his floppy hat off of his head and showing off the mussed up ginger hair underneath. He swooped down in a jovial bow. "You're looking remarkably purple today."

I averted my eyes nervously, uncertain whether it would be more appropriate to feel apprehension or embarrassment at that. _Dark Magician_ didn't seem very amused, however. His eyes shut briefly and he let out a sigh so devoid of emotion that perhaps "alive" wasn't the best way to describe him after all.

"I've told you several times; I am _not_ Mahad," he replied, his irritation lining his tone like static electricity. "Mahad is dead…" He leaned over to the side to glance at me and my companions. "... _unlike you_."

"Jeez, pal," Peten replied, putting a clawed hand on his hip and adjusting the hat again over his wispy ginger hair. "You're more of a miserable asshole than usual. So -uh -you gonna step aside or what?"

 _Dark Magician_ shook his head slowly. "You're fully aware that you're not allowed in the Solitude."

I fidgeted in place and stepped forward. "What _is_ the Solitude?" I asked, the question coming out of me almost involuntarily. "And why can't we go in there?"

Chills ran down my spine when the magician's eyes met my own. There was so much in there that I couldn't even begin to describe -complex emotions and something not entirely human that just made my body tingle in awe and a little bit of fear. "Not you. _Him_. His presence agitates the Warden."

Peten crossed his arms and hopped on the balls of his feet immaturely. "Does _not_. I like to think the Warden and I are great friends."

Ignoring him, _Dark Magician_ addressed me sharply, "You. You're one of Yugi's friends, are you not?"

"I… I suppose I am," I replied tentatively.

"Then this is a friendly warning. Do not go in there. That place is full of despair and the Warden… The Warden is one of the most fearsome monsters in this realm." His words held a power in them that wasn't exactly magical, but it sent me back a few steps, my eyes warily eyeing the gate.

"Don't listen to him, Lorna," Peten argued. His hand shot out and pointed to _Dark Magician_ in an accusatory manner. "Mahad, you absolute devil. You dare to besmirch a lady's honor like that? The Warden is such a kindly woman. Please don't fall prey to this vagabond's lies, Lorna, my dear."

If looks could kill, _Dark_ _Magician_ would have been committing mass murder. His eyes were narrowed and his lips were set in a line so tight that it seemed like a single movement would make it snap into Peten's face.

"I don't trust you," I told the clown.

"Me neither," Zephyr stepped in, but Sun remained very quiet, observing the scene with an unreadable expression.

"And you trust this guy?" Peten asked, gesturing towards _Dark Magician_. "He can't even dress properly. Purple on purple? That doesn't sound like the fashion sense of a person I would entrust my life to. I mean, I'm just saying. The guy's a walking cartoon."

… Did Peten even have a shred of self-awareness? No, for real. The baggiest striped parachute pants I've ever seen and a floppy red hat? He looked like demented offspring of the eighties and a Victorian clown.

Peten gave me a look and then grumbled. "Don't be fucking rude, Lorna."

"I didn't… say anything," I mumbled. Right. Mind reader, too. I forgot about that part.

"You forget that if you don't go in there, you'll be leaving people to die," he said, brushing my comment aside. "You wouldn't want that, would you?"

"Leaving _who_ to die?" I cried out. "You keep telling us someone is in there but you're being really cryptic about it. What aren't you telling us?"

A laugh rumbled from within Peten's chest and he twirled around once in happiness. "Oh, I'm glad you noticed all that cryptic nonsense. I've been trying to go for an edgier look lately. Was it working -"

"Just _tell_ us already!" I yelled, balling my hands into fists and burying them in my elbows.

"Ahh…" he sighed. "You guys are no fun. If you _must_ know, Serenity's in there. Last I heard, she and the Warden were going head to head and as far as I know, the Warden never loses. We're here to save her life and whatever."

"Wh-Whatever?" I nearly screamed. "Why didn't you say that in the first place?"

"So you would have been fine if you had to leave someone else to die?" he asked, his words sending a poison dart through my heart.

My words tumbled into the bottom of my stomach, almost like my entire vocabulary was hit by and earthquake. "N-No… I…"

Zephyr cut in before I could say anything. "How did she get in there? Why is she even in the Inbetween? Is my anchor in there? Or Sun's anchor?"

Peten shrugged. "Well, I know I found your anchor and Sun's anchor wandering not far from where I found you guys and I sent them back to their own realms. But Serenity was sent immediately to the Solitude."

"Why?" I inquired, feeling a misplaced sense of guilt at the fact that _my anchor,_ out of all of them, was the one to end up in the Solitude.

Sun broke her silence then. "Maybe she never left. Back on the blimp, she went unconscious. Maybe that's where she was… and maybe… somehow… she never left."

I stared at her incredulously. "Th-That… That's insane! We saw her wake up and talk to us. She was awake!"

She simply looked away and crossed one arm over her torso. "Yeah, well, maybe it was still possible… for her conscious mind to be in the realm of the living while something else made sure that her subconscious never left the Solitude."

"You're pretty smart for a dead chick," Peten remarked. "I'll admit that's entirely possible." He raised his hand to twirl a strand of his hair. "I mean, it's happened to Lorna before -or does our resident amnesiac not remember that either?"

I frowned, opting to ignore his comment. We had more pressing issues at hand, and I would deal with the things I couldn't remember later. There was something else we needed to do first. I faced _Dark Magician_ and timidly spoke. "We need to get in there."

He absentmindedly adjusted the cuff of his sleeve as he spoke. "No. _He_ can't come with you."

"Then we'll go… alone," Zephyr countered, sounding unsure of his words. Could we really go in there without Peten though?

"No dice," Peten butted in. "Either you let us all through, or we _make_ you step aside."

 _Dark Magician's_ frown deepened and he conjured his staff into his right hand. "I'd like to see you try, _clown_ ," he threatened, raising his staff into the air. The tip began to glow in a lavender color which began to expand all around him. In less than a minute, the light had stretched across the entirety of the wall, even the parts that were too far to see. The entire structure sent out waves of heat that made me question how he was even able to stay in such close proximity to it -especially under that heavy looking coat.

"Very mature, Mahad. Stop being a dick and let us through," Peten called out, raising his voice so that the magician could hear him through the magic wall. With his free hand, _Dark Magician_ held up his finger, shaking it very calmly, and then crossed his arms over his chest, keeping his staff close to him.

"Let's just -" Zephyr began, but was promptly interrupted by Peten.

"Well!" he declared. "I tried everything I could. I guess we're going to have to kill him." Those words were said so confidently and unyieldingly –fuck, I couldn't even buy a laptop with that much self-assurance. Were we really going to trust him?

Startled, I grabbed my wrist and leaned in. "W-We can't do that!"

He shook his head and exhaled slowly. "Yeah, you're right. We can't kill him… but we _can_ kick his ass…" As a side-note, he added, "By the way, it looks great in that cloak, Mahad. I can tell you've been working those glutes out." He ended his sentence with an awkward chuckle and _Dark Magician_ simply rolled his eyes, not amused and not flattered.

Peten gave me an expectant look. "Well?" I asked him. "You don't expect _me_ to do anything, do you?"

He raised his arms towards me. "I do, actually. You're the perfect person for the job. He's dark -you're light… You're both goody two shoes who can't take a fucking joke. In fact, if I wasn't expecting you to kick his ass, I'd kinda ship you."

I groaned internally and then looked at the ground. "I thought you said you _didn't_ want me to die…" I bit my lip when I remembered that I was already dead and added an "again" to the end of my sentence, just in case.

"C'mon, you know how to transmogrify, right?" he asked. "The rest will come just as naturally."

Well, I _did_ know that much. But I couldn't _fight_. Shit, I got jitters just thinking about it. I mean, everything about fighting someone like the _Dark Magician_ felt wrong, but Peten wasn't about to leave and we _needed_ to get in there. Reluctantly, I tried to trigger the transmogrification, feeling relief when, for once, something decided to cooperate with me and the familiar sensation ran down my arms and legs. The armor hugged my skin and flexed with my muscles. The helmet was a bit snug but it allowed me to breathe while making sure nobody stabbed me in the head, so I couldn't really complain.

"Should we help her?" Zephyr questioned from behind me.

Peten held out his hand and shook his head. "No, no. She can do it." _No, I can't_. "I need you two to watch my back." Watch _his_ back? I was the one who was about to get creamed!

I hadn't really had time to appreciate the sensation of being in this armor the last time I put it on, but it did send a sharp jolt of courage into me. I _really_ didn't want to fight, but the more time we spent out there arguing, the less time we'd have to save Serenity. This wasn't a matter of what I _wanted_ to do… it was a matter of what I _needed_ to do.

"God, I'm so sorry," I whispered, my eyes meeting _Dark_ _Magician's_ eyes. He made no move to defend himself, seeming awfully confident in the magical wall he had constructed. Then again, he was going up against a girl who didn't even know how to even start fighting. The only physical training I had ever had was dancing… wait. That… That could work.

I bounced slightly on my toes for measure and then treaded lightly towards my opponent, who simply gazed curiously at me. All the while, I could feel something hot and powerful surging through my body and buzzing at the tips of my fingers. What if I could use that?

Once I was standing a mere couple of feet away from him, I gently raised my arms and cupped my hands in front of my chest plate, watching white light like fire form against my palms. It reflected against the armor and was nearly blinding to look at. _Dark Magician_ held his staff in both of his hands, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape; he wasn't the only one surprised, as I hesitantly continued doing whatever it was that I had managed to do, constantly fearing that I wouldn't be able to maintain it.

Peten let out a victorious laugh, causing an unexpected surge of pride to rush through me. No, I shouldn't have been proud of myself. "Atta girl!"

The fire felt heavy in my hands in spite of what I had assumed was its nature. I moved my left leg back, holding the white mass in my hand like a football (an American one -not one of your un-American _soccer balls_ ). I sucked in a deep breath, channelling everything I could remember from PE class, which wasn't much considering the fact the sole reason I died was due in part to shitty hand-eye coordination.

With a grunt, I threw the flames at the magic barrier. At first, I thought nothing happened, but upon closer inspection, the area that was hit by the white fire looked like it was flickering. It was faint, but that might have been the crack I needed to break through.

_Alright, Lorna. Just do this again. That wasn't too hard. You can do this…_

I held both hands up at my sides, watching them heat up and feeling the power course through me. It was weird and I think I liked the way it rippled like water. The second time was the charm as it took much less time for significant fireballs to form in my hands. _Alright… time to Kamehameha this motherfucker._ I held my hands out in front of me and shut my eyes. If I was estimating my abilities correctly, I would be able to extend those fireballs into a giant pillar of magic flames. God, I sincerely hoped I was that badass.

I shyly opened one eyelid and the sight, I'll admit, excited me more than it should have. My flame pillar was actually happening… as in… I had powers. How cool was that? It was way too bright to actually see the extent of the damage it was dealing, but it had to be going well, right? My hands were beginning to feel like they were on fire after a minute, unfortunately, and I had to take a break and check out what I had managed to do. Panting slightly and feeling a light coat of sweat covering my forehead, I took a step forward to examine the spot that I had been attacking…

… only to find not a single crack or dent in the magic barrier. I let out a loud whine and kneeled over with my hands on my knees, turning my gaze to Peten. "It didn't work," I informed him breathlessly. "Any chance I could get a helping hand here -"

"Wait," Zephyr interjected. "Lorna, look! It's doing something."

I whirled around and straightened my back, watching the barrier carefully. He was right; something _was_ happening. Slowly, but surely, cracks started forming on the surface of the barrier, but they were unlike any cracks I had ever seen before. These cracks were in small and precise shapes, cutting into the violet almost as though someone were pressing them in with a cookie cutter. They started where I had been directing my flames, right in front of _Dark Magician_ , and spread out in all directions along the magic wall.

In that moment, there was something very fragile about that barrier, almost like a good kick would knock that thing down, and I could tell by the look on _Dark Magician's_ face that I was right. Something felt off about fighting Yugi's favorite monster, but Serenity was in trouble and I'm sure Yugi would forgive me.

_Alright… so how am I gonna approach this?_

I was a dancer once upon a time…Y'know -like Téa only worse. I think I told you that already. I was out of practice for the most part and I would probably strain every muscle in my body doing this… Ah, fuck it. Fuck it all.

"Okay…" I told my companions as I began to take a few steps back. _Dark Magician_ was beginning to repair the barrier so I would have to hurry. Why didn't he just fight me? I mean, I didn't want to fight him, but it struck me as odd to see him holding back like this. "You might wanna stand back for this," I warned, stopping a few feet away and stretching out a bit in place.

_Hoo boy, Lorna. You can do this. Piece of cake._

I leaned forward, put one leg in front of the other and jumped, landing on my hands and flipping back, repeating the motion over and over and building up momentum as I went along. I was actually kind of surprised that I still knew how to do this after a while of being the laziest piece of shit ever ejected from a uterus. I was only a few handsprings away from my target and closing in fast. Nearly two feet away from him, I let my impetus carry me to where I needed to go, leaping off of the ground with my hands and aiming to land right on the magician's (admittedly handsome) face.

I sucked in a deep breath as I felt my body leave the ground for the final leap, hoping and praying that whatever was letting me do all this would allow this last hit to count. After what felt like minutes, I felt myself hit something and heard a loud shatter followed by a loud grunt, which likely came from _Dark Magician_ himself. When it was over, I was somewhere unfamiliar and standing on his torso. Losing my balance, I toppled to the ground. So much for my big finish.

It seemed like I had managed to send myself and _Dark Magician_ crashing through the gate he had been working so hard to guard. _Shit._ Why was I proud of myself for hurting someone else? Did I really _want_ to be like Zorc?

"You don't know what you've just done!" I heard my opponent bellow over the howling of the wind around us.

I crawled back, away from his hulking form, eyeing his magical staff warily. _Well, he certainly looks pissed as fuck._ Zephyr, Sun, and Peten came rushing through the gate and past us. "Keep him distracted for a bit, Lorna!" Peten called out. "We'll find Serenity!"

_Yeah… Sure… Abandon me. I've always thought 'You know what would make life after death even more pleasant? Dying again.'_

_Dark Magician_ didn't notice the trio that had just run by him -well, either that, or he was beyond worrying about them at that point. The only thing on his face was determination and anger… two things that he was like to invoke to aid him while beating my fat ass into the dry dirt beneath me. I'll admit I was off to a good start, but I doubted he had been planning on hurting me at first. Now, things were about to get serious… and man, I hoped I wouldn't need a new pair of panties after this.


	35. Lumen III

She doesn't know how she got here. She can still feel the cold floor of the underwater facility she had been in; she can still taste the rot on her breath. One second she was on her knees, lurching in pain, but safe in her brother's arms, and the next she's here…

She can't breathe. She swears she can't breathe. She can't move her body either, not out of pain, but out of an immense sense of numbness and a tingling sensation, akin to anxiety, tapping insistently at the front of her brain. And for several moments, she ruminates on the thought of being dead -the thought of her pulse slowing to a stop. Who would be the first to find her? Would it be Joey? How would he react? She doesn't want to think about that part, only the strange warmth and that sense of peace in the everlasting darkness…

"'Everlasting darkness'?" a scornful voice interrupts. It's deep and guttural, but also smooth and oddly soothing. She hears a rumbling chuckle that causes her entire body to quiver like a harp string as she tries to understand what's going on. "I wouldn't give up so soon. If I were a good person, I'd tell you that people are counting on you -but I'm not."

All at once, the light comes back and she feels like her head's just been pulled out of the water. She can't see him clearly, the stranger with the deep voice -just a bright light and a mess of colors that dance chaotically around before her eyes. She's off-balance and the only thing around her giving her a sense of the space around her was the clawed hand holding her forearm so firmly it hurt.

The colors slow to a stop and she now realizes that the one who saved her could hardly be called human. Though his body looks human _enough_ -albeit gargantuan in size -half of his face is covered in a terrifying mask and what she can see is a large mouth, stuck in a permanent grimace of long teeth that are yellow and cracked, but could probably still bite through her whole arm if he wished it. Of course, she isn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth (in quite the literal sense), so she sucks up her fears and straightens her back.

"Good to see you have your focus back." The rough and stretched lips growl. "Now, I can take the Warden alone, but I can't babysit you while I do it. Can you open your third eye?"

Serenity is taken aback, her hand moving immediately to the spot on her forehead where she had once indeed uncovered a third eye, but how would this creature know about it? "I… I don't remember how I opened it the first time," she admits timidly, her eyes darting away from her savior to look around the plain. Speaking of the Warden -she can't see her anywhere.

Her companion lets out a sigh and pushes Serenity back. "Figure it out. Fast." The creature's wings, which she only just notices, spread out. The dark, leathery appendages look like the sort of thing you would see on a demon prince from a fairy tale; only these were real -or as real as she could call this place. Could she really trust him? Something in her gut tells her she shouldn't, but now isn't the time for such speculation.

She knows that the previous time she opened her third eye, someone had been with her. _Peten._ However, _he_ had been the one to open it for her; could she really do it on her own? Judging by the situation, it seems like she'll have to do it on her own regardless of whether or not she actually believes she can -so what's the harm in trying, right?

She nods swiftly and steps back against a nearby tree, closing her eyes and trying to remember how the world looked with her third eye. She can remember how limited her vision was, but also how bright and clear it was, like observing the world for the first time through a polished lens. Maybe that is the very emotion she needs to be concentrating on.

The stranger lets out a sigh that sounds a lot like relief, however, between her temples, there is a sensation that is a lot _less_ like relief. She has forgotten the pain that came with opening her third eye and the throbbing of her temples is the harsh reminder and the beckoner as a scream tears through her throat, her hands grasping her head. She feels hard, solid extremities, like horns, growing from her head and feels the muscles in her forehead stretch and shift beneath her skin. She doesn't dare move her hands over the eye just as she's beginning to see through it.

"That's more like it. Now, get out of here," he orders. He doesn't look at her, his head turning slowly on its axis, examining the horizon for any signs of the Warden.

"Not without Ryou," she retorts defiantly, moving to rush towards the incapacitated boy.

She feels her body snap backwards in the direction of the stranger. "Now, any other day, I'd tell you that trusting me is the worst thing you could ever do, but trust me on this, Serenity Wheeler: if you take him out of here before he's finished his sentence, you'll kill him more surely than anything this place could shit out."

Her heart catches in her chest and she struggles in his grasp, tugging at the fabric of the emerald dress that had draped itself over her body. _His sentence? What does that even mean?_ "B-But -"

"Just go," he hisses. "I'll watch over the brat, but you need to get out of here."

Reluctantly and perhaps a little bit out of fear of the monstrous glare that the stranger had sent her way, she stumbles away from him, dashing past a few trees. God, they all look the same and she feels like her heart is beating faster with every step she takes. She vaguely remembers having the ability to fly, but her mind isn't quite up to dealing with that as well. One step at a time. One foot in front of the other. She doesn't exactly know where she's going, but she knows that the farther she gets away from whatever that thing was, the better.

In her haste, she doesn't even feel herself collide with something hard and fall bottom-first to the ground. Winded, she reaches behind her and tries to hoist herself off of the dirt, and as she does so, she gives the person she crashed into a once-over. She's tall, a woman she recognizes, but whose name she had never learned.

"Serenity?" the woman acknowledges and Serenity can tell that those green eyes are cautiously observing the extra organ on her brow. "Are you… alright?"

Serenity nods carefully, brushing the woman's uncomfortable gaze aside and helping her up as she gets to her feet. "Yeah, but Ryou…"

Before either of them can get another word in, they're joined by two others. "You found her!" one of the others exclaims, coming to a stop beside the woman. He's also someone who had been on the blimp, but Serenity doesn't know his name either.

Peten is the third one to meet her, looking as glib (if not more glib) as the day they had first met. His arms are crossed over his chest and one of his hands dangles over the crook of his elbow, his fingers twirling idly in place. She's not certain when those three had gotten acquainted, but it's not really the time to question them about it, "Well, that's all well and good, but if Serenity's here, then where's the Warden?"

She instinctively turns around, her torso facing the direction that she came from, where she had left the mysterious creature that had saved her. She's not quite certain how Peten had figured out that she had been facing the Warden earlier, but she doesn't linger on the thought for very long. "She must be back where I left her… with that… guy?" she answers him timidly. She isn't sure if that was the right word to use, but the creature _had_ spoken to her and his features seemed somewhat humanoid.

"Uh… a guy?" Peten inquires.

"A kinda scary guy…" she elaborates, starting to wonder if perhaps 'creature' _was_ the right word after all.

He's silent for a moment and Serenity immediately feels like she's done something wrong, but before she can make a fool of herself trying to exonerate herself for a verbal crime that may or may not have committed, he spoke again. "He wasn't by any chance very big -big muscles, big wings, big ego... kind of an asshole?"

For a moment, Serenity deliberates, mostly on the last point, but eventually affirms. "I think so."

Peten uncrosses his arms and puts his hands on his hips, letting out a very long sigh as he slouches over in defeat. "This is not good. Not good at all… He _shouldn't_ be here… Not… Not yet."

"'Not yet'?" the unfamiliar black haired boy repeats, narrowing his eyes. "You ever going to explain anything or are you planning on being this confusing every time you talk to us?"

Peten shrugs, twirling around once before heading in the direction Serenity indicated. "Surely, being an enigma must be my endearing character trait, right?"

The boy scowls and refrains from spitting out a snide remark. Once Peten is gone, he says, "He got what he came for and we found Serenity. So let's rescue Lorna and get out of here."

"Wait! Who are you people? A-and rescue?" Serenity gasps, not certain if she's heard correctly.

"Ah sorry. I'm Zephyr and she's Sun," he reaches out to shake her hand and upon being met with stark rejection in that regard, he lets out a nervous series of laughs before explaining, "W-Well, we left her with an angry _Dark Magician_ … and I don't know how badly that _Dark Magic Attack's_ gonna mess her up before she needs miraculous intervention."

"But that's Yugi's monster!" she cries out. "Why would he -"

"Peten," the woman, Sun, interrupts in a low voice, and everything is suddenly clear to Serenity. Of _course_ it was the shady-looking clown.

Their trek back towards the Solitude's battered entrance is halted by a stern voice and a hooded duo. By the looks on her companions' faces, they definitely aren't friendlies. "Not so fast!" one of them orders, a hand on her hip.

"Who are you?" Zephyr demands, stepping to the front of the group. "Why do you keep coming after us?"

The second hood strikes a pose. " _To protect the world from devastation -_ " he begins to recite before being struck on the back of the head by the other.

"Wrong anime, moron," she scolds. With a sigh, she examines the group closely before announcing, "Lorna's not here. Where is she?"

"What so you can get to her? Not a chance." Zephyr straightens his back and narrows his eyes at the strangers.

Ignoring him, the first one speaks again. "You there." She sticks out her gloved hand towards Sun, leading her to tense up and glower quietly. "Where's Lorna?"

There is a single beat between the stranger's inquiry and Sun's words, enough time to build an entire mountain of anxiety in Zephyr's chest waiting on his friend's answer -and she picks the wrong one. "She's over by the entrance, fighting _Dark Magician._ "

Under the first hood, they see a smirk. "She's all yours, Horatio."

The second hood, Horatio, doesn't bother responding before running off to find Lorna, but that's the least of Zephyr and Serenity's concerns as they both have looks of shock and distaste directed at Sun.

"You ratted her out!" Zephyr roars. "What were you thinking?"

The remaining hooded figure lets out a high pitched cackle. "Don't know what _she's_ thinking, but _I'm_ thinking you and I have a bone to pick." She abruptly faces Sun and says, "Watch the kid for me, would you? I wouldn't want her running around in a place like this without adult supervision."

A silent nod is all that Sun offers before grabbing Serenity by the neck and holding her back. "N-No! Let me go!" Serenity shrieks, fighting furiously against her hold.

"Now, why don't I introduce myself before we get to business?" She unbuttons the cloak she had over her body and lets it drop, revealing a heavy-looking battle suit, covered in pouches and pockets, but nothing as eye-catching as the full set of artillery on her utility belt. "The name is Ophelia, and you're about to pay for what you did to Viola."

* * *

Lorna can feel her eyes watering, unsure whether it's due to her fear or due to the wind picking up speed and blowing the dry and scratchy dirt into her face. She faces _Dark Magician_ , holding out her arms in a shielding position and hoping something - _anything_ -would happen. She tries to give herself a pep-talk, but coming from herself, it isn't very effective.

She wonders what happened to the confidence she had earlier; can she somehow tap into it? She knows that it shouldn't be this difficult, although the dull and unimpressive sparks coming from her fingertips are telling a different story. "C'mon…" she snarls, snapping and waving her hands desperately. "For once, just give me _something._ "

 _Dark Magician_ holds his staff at the ready and begins forming a spell; she can't hear the words he's mumbling over the howling of the wind, but she knows it's bad. The pointed tip of the staff starts to glow and it lowers to point menacingly at Lorna. She figures it's too late to get back on his good side and keeps her arms steady in front of her torso.

He doesn't say anything as he holds his staff almost hesitantly. His eyes are unreadable and his mouth is set in a tight line, but something about his demeanor told of a sense of sorrow, which made the inevitable thrust of his staff all the more terrifying.

Quicker than her eyes can see, he leaps forth, plunging his weapon as he does, while Lorna braces herself for the pain, only to be met with a loud clang accompanied by several vibrations resonating through her skin. She has slid almost a foot back, but somehow she's still on her feet. She opens one of her eyelids, which she only just realizes she had closed, and looks at the sleek rod now clasped between her fingers. The long handle is a dim bronze color that faintly reflected the grey landscape around them, and the tip is a sharp looking blade with intricate carvings decorating its outline. It had absorbed all the damage from _Dark Magician's_ attack.

She only wastes a single moment ogling her new weapon before she pushes back against the magician and forces a meter's distance between herself and her opponent. He doesn't waste any time either, charging up another attack and rising up off the ground. Anticipating his next move, Lorna grips her lance tightly and swings it to defend herself. They go back and forth like this for what seems like forever, each deafening clang adding to the blooming ache in her forearm.

"Th-That all you got?" she grunts under the weight of his attack, her heart's palpitations thundering in her ear and her nerves steadily increasing in severity. After a brief mental countdown, she eases her pressure on _Dark Magician_ and ducks below his elevated feet, striking his unprotected back with the sharp end of the lance while he struggles to regain balance. The weapon goes through him, but far too easily than she had expected it to.

A hand tightly grips her neck and the flash of purple she sees when she attempts to turn her head quells any doubts she had about the figure she had just stabbed. "You're one of _his,_ aren't you? The seven departed."

"I. Don't. Know. What. You're. Talking. About." she struggles to say, losing what precious oxygen she's managed to gather as she does.

"Maybe this will jog your memory!" he cries, contempt dripping from every syllable, as he swings Lorna and tosses her at a dead tree, watching her small body crash and drop to the ground like a rag doll.

She yelps in pain as the ash grey bark collides with the side of her head, cracking the hard exterior of her headgear. She groans and pulls the obsolete and uncomfortable apparel off, throwing it aside before getting back up. She watches wearily as he starts moving towards her; she wishes she hadn't dropped her lance.

"Stay back," she whispers. Her palms sweat over the white dirt and her shoulders vibrate steadily against the tree. "Why are you doing this?"

"The man you're assisting wishes to bring ruin and destruction onto the world of the living, effectively destroying all the other worlds as well," he responded stiffly, inching closer and holding his rod low. "He seeks to bring back an ancient evil -older than both you and me. To that end, he's brought seven different spirits back from the dead and kept them in limbo. He did not pose a threat until you brought him here –to the Solitude. The only way to stop him now is to destroy his tools."

"'Tools'..." she repeats under her breath, turning her face to the ground and trying to make the world around her stop shaking. _He means me. He means Zephyr and Sun… even Malik._

"You were never supposed to come back, Lori" A new voice interrupts their confrontation; out of the corner of her eye, Lorna can see someone tall wearing a black hood. He starts towards them slowly, parting the thick coating of tension in the atmosphere like the Red Sea.

"This isn't your fight, Guardian," _Dark Magician_ warns, pointing his staff at the stranger and then back at Lorna. "Leave. Now."

The Guardian doesn't pay him any mind, continuing his approach with an apparent nonchalance. "Or what?" he asks, raising his palm into the air. "Stand down, _Dark Magician._ I'll handle her."

She glares weakly at the newcomer, panting lightly and trying to ignore the throbbing in her arms. "I'm not a thing!" she hollers raspily. "I'm not an abomination. I'm a person. I don't deserve this," she adds, her voice sinking back into her throat dejectedly midway through the last sentence.

"I know," the Guardian says in a surprisingly soft tone. "I'm going to take you home, okay?" _Dark Magician_ takes an abrupt step back just as the Guardian approaches.

"Home?" Her eyes are lifeless and her voice toneless.

The man lowers his hood back and kneels at her side. "Lori, look it's me." He's not particularly familiar, but there's something about the curly jet black hair, parted unevenly, and his honey-colored eyes. His thin lips and the shape of his nose… Something clicks inside of her.

"'Lori'?" she tastes the name on her tongue and is hit with a rush of nostalgia, dripping from the corners of her sore, red eyes. "Kenny?"

"Yeah," he affirms, keeping his eyes on her own unwaveringly. "I… uh… grew up," he offers in order to satisfy the impossibly puzzled grimace on her face. He reaches over to help her up. "Let's get you out of here, okay?"

"N-No!" she protests, avoiding his hands. "You're a Guardian."

Ken bites his lip and sighs. "Do you even know what the Guardians are? We're not the bad guys! We're just trying to make things right."

"I know Viola tried to kill me," she states dryly.

"You're already dead, Lori," he shoots back. "You can't come back to life. There's no way for this to work out well for anyone involved."

This isn't new information to her, but her eyes still widen when she hears it. Perhaps it had never occurred to her before this moment, however she knows that her fear of death never eased after she learned of her own unfortunate fate. "But I'm back," she argues, knowing exactly how pathetic she sounds. "And I don't want to die."

"Oh, jeez, Lori…"

* * *

Serenity runs her nails desperately over Sun's arm, trying to escape from her grasp. She gasps for breath as the arm tightens around her neck. She roughly jerks her head back, hitting Sun squarely in the jaw and causing the chokehold to weaken just enough for Serenity to force her head through the gap and out of captivity.

"Stop!" Sun bellows, running after Serenity and closing in with great speed.

Serenity breathes hard, dashing away and trying to find a way to get a weapon in her hands. How had she managed to bring out the silver bow and arrows last time? She ran through the small gap between two trees, hoping it would slow down her pursuer if at least a tiny bit. Still no silver bow, though…

A frustrated shriek follows after Serenity. "Stop running!" It sounds almost like a ghostly wail -and perhaps that's not too far off considering the circumstances.

Serenity's heart is in her throat, her hands already numb with fear, and she's surprised that she can even keep up her pace when the muscles in her legs are threatening to fail her as well. Her vision is clouded and her eyes are beginning to leak, burning in the chilly, dry air, so much so that she can barely see where she's going anymore. All the while, her terror is eating at her -the fear that she'll end up running herself into a circle and straight back into captivity -so when a pair of strong arms displace her tiny body, she lets out a shrill scream and frantically throws kicks at her assailant.

"Calm down! I'm here to help!" The voice that comes at her is certainly not Sun's and while that should have made her calm down, the fact that it's not the least bit familiar makes the alarms in her head blare even louder than before. She can't even see his face, since it's almost completely covered by a polished gold helmet, matching the golden armor that covered the rest of his body.

"Stop!" she squeals, nearly losing her voice at the back of her throat. "Stop it! LET ME GO!"

"Shh. Shh!" the strange boy covers Serenity's mouth with his clawed gauntlet, using his other arm to hoist her into the air and dash off. "I can't explain, but you need to trust me."

* * *

Zephyr leers at his opponent. "Horatio… Viola… Ophelia, huh? I'm betting those aren't your real names, are they? So are you Guardians running some sort of Shakespeare theme?" He stretches out his arms lightly and cracks the joints in his neck. He can feel his skin start to prickle and burn, his attire starting to morph into thick leather armor while two crimson blades, each of them almost two feet long, attach themselves to his left wrist. Gradually, the bones in his feet begin to pop and elongate, hardening into sharp talons. Bringing with it a pain that nearly throws him to his knees, his back tears open, his shoulder blades shooting out and unfolding, revealing a pair of bright red wings, darkened by his own blood. Straightening up immediately after his transmogrification, he brings his unarmed fist over to his brow to wipe away the sweat that had formed. "It doesn't matter either way. There's no way you're taking me down."

Ophelia's lips stretch in a smug smile, reaching down into her belt with both hands and pulling out a pair of identical pistols from among the dozens of weapons weighing her down. They looked strange, almost like they were each made out of solid diamond, with streaks of neon colors circulating through the barrels. "Nice to see you're dressed for the occasion. Do you want me to bury with or without the tacky red wings?"

He chortles and flexes his back, lifting his body into the air. "Depends," he replies, grinning and revealing a row of sharpened teeth. "Do you think those Buzz Lightyear collectibles are gonna make a scratch on me?"

She sends one single shot through the feathers on his left wing; it brushes against his skin and dislodges a couple of feathers. "Looks like they just did."

He scowls at her and feels a feral screech make its way through his throat. He belts it out at her like a warning before diving at her, aiming his blades at her head. "Die, bitch!"

"After _you_!" she grunts, ducking and watching him somersault in the air, doubling back at her with superhuman agility. She lifts one pistol to block his next blow, sending hot sparks flying into the atmosphere around them. With her other arm, she holds the barrel of her second gun against his stomach and begins shooting in quick succession. By the third shot, he is nearly five yards away from her.

He swerves to the side, avoiding her swift shots, his hand holding his stomach in agony. Only one shot has managed to go through the leather, and it's currently lodged in his lower abdomen. He can feel warm blood stain his hands and glares at Ophelia. After realizing that he's going to bleed regardless, he moves both of his arms to his side, his hands balled up tight, and flaps his wings with all his strength. The wind is already racing due to the storm and the beating of wings turns it into a vengeful tornado.

Ophelia barely avoids a flying tree branch and winces to keep the suspended dirt out from shooting into her eyes like microscopic bullets. With her vision impaired, Zephyr dives towards her and plunges his blades into her shoulder, using her shock to disarm her before prying her off of the weapon and sending her flying into a nearby stone structure. It cracks loudly upon impact and shatters.

He holds one wing over his face to keep the debris caught by the storm from being flung at him. When the feathered appendage moves back again, the dust has blown away and he can see Ophelia again. She appears no worse for wear, dusting off the top of her blonde buzz cut and pulling out a new weapon. This one is a long-barreled shotgun that seems to be made of a similar material as her previous weapons but with a dull violet tint to it.

"Time to stop fucking around," she announces, aiming at Zephyr with a wink.

He can see her struggling to keep straight face; no doubt the pain from her wound is killing her. He grins back. He's been itching for a postmortem workout.


	36. Caelestis II

_She forgot about me._ It takes way too long for this truth to dawn on him -way too long for it to pierce through the thick skin of his chest and lodge itself between his lungs, making each breath he takes a bonafide challenge. It's been way too long and the memories still haven't come back. He's started to wonder if they ever will -if she'd believe him should he try to tell her. Would she believe anything he had to say anymore?

There are three people in this body and one of them is laughing at him; the other owns this body and he's been quiet for a while now. It's a strange and empty feeling having the _other_ Marik in charge. All three of them are insane, he knows that for sure, but the other Marik's insanity is the kind that hurts people. Malik won't lie to himself and claim to be some sort of saint (Arkana himself would testify to that if he could), but he knows the dark Marik wouldn't hesitate to burn the whole world down and sit down in the middle of the chaos, letting the flames lick his skin and reveling in the sensation as his skin roasted to a black crisp.

The mental image makes Malik shudder and rub his arms. It would be particularly useful to mention that Malik was no longer in the realm of the living, but in the Inbetween, standing before the gates to the Solitude and feeling the heavy winds reach out towards him from beyond the towering wall. There's no Gatekeeper standing watch, and if the broken stones were any indication, it's likely they haven't just gone out for a brief coffee break.

He takes his first steps and immediately feels the change in the atmosphere. He can't even see anything; the dust is so thick. The howling of the wind makes it hard for him to hear anything as well, so he feels disadvantaged as he makes his way blindly past the threshold and into a thicket of trees.

" _Let me go!_ "

He purses his lips. _Serenity._ And she sounds close… That's not who he's looking for, but she's close enough for the moment. He sighs.

_Man, Horakhty picked the wrong guy for this job…_

* * *

_ SpookyFingerFoods is typing… _

**_SpookyFingerFoods:_** heyyy, u kno wat really jimmies my jammies?

 ** _DestroyerOfWorlds:_** … do i want to know?

 ** _SpookyFingerFoods:_** airplane food -leik tf is up w/ that stuff amirite?

 ** _DestroyerOfWorlds:_** oh look, it seems i did not in fact want to know that

_Malik yawns and leans his head back, watching the screen through semi-closed lids. SpookyFingerFoods' avatar, a warrior with gold-trimmed sterling silver armor (or as sterling as 16-bit graphics could get), dashed deeper into the dungeon, lance at the ready in case of any monster encounters. DestroyerOfWorlds, clad in high-tier gold armor and a limited edition dragon helmet, ran in as well._

**_DestroyerOfWorlds:_** please stop leeroy jenkins-ing everywhere.

 ** _DestroyerOfWorlds:_** you're two levels too low to even be in here.

 ** _SpookyFingerFoods:_** eyy that's wht i gott u for, destroyerr~

_He makes to type something back at her, but he's interrupted by an in-game pop-up:_

_"YOUR PARTY HAS BEEN AMBUSHED!"_

_"Malik! Get out of that room of yours!" a man bellows at the top of his lungs in Arabic from another room. He rolls his eyes and ignores it, electing to focus on the battle at hand. He can't just leave SFF high and dry, now can he?_

_DOW summons his animal familiar, a black dragon roughly the size of a large dog with a short neck; it creeps up beside him and roars. The warrior himself slams his gauntlet into a lanky grey goblin, destroying it in one attack. SFF slams her lance into the ground, summoning a comet storm that deals critical damage to all of the enemies._

_He grins to himself, waiting until the victory fanfare was over to type again._

**_DestroyerOfWorlds:_** what did i tell you?

 ** _SpookyFingerFoods:_** eh -i can just heal myself. i still have some mana

 ** _DestroyerOfWorlds:_** oh? the mana that you refuse to waste on my *** even when my health is critically low? that mana?

 ** _SpookyFingerFoods:_** language, misterr or ill have ta tell on u to the admins

 ** _DestroyerOfWorlds:_** loser

 ** _SpookyFingerFoods:_** :)))))) you love me

 ** _DestroyerOfWorlds:_** i guess

 ** _SpookyFingerFoods:_** I GUESS?!

 ** _SpookyFingerFoods:_** worst bf everrrr ;P

_ DestroyerOfWorlds is typing... _

_His face turns bright red with nobody to see it. They aren't really dating -neither of them are forward enough to ask -but they have been mistaken by other players for a bickering couple, and she teases him relentlessly about it. It isn't like he hasn't thought about asking her and making it official, but the possibility of her teasing being just that -teasing -drains his courage every time he builds it up._

_"Malik!" The door to his bedroom slams open, heavy wood clattering against the wall. That's definitely going to leave a mark. The man standing at the door isn't very tall, but he makes up for it in his stoutness and sour disposition. He isn't Malik's father. No, Salman Al-Deeb was a hero._

_This man, Ra'ed, is his mother's new husband -a doctor who bought his degree off the Internet and someone who fancies himself a good father just because he goes to the mosque for every prayer. He comes home like he's the veritable king and sits on his big ass ordering the family around like he owns them -like he could just buy them with the blood money he earns pretending he knows what he's doing at the hospital._

_"What do you want?" Malik snaps bitterly, jumping to his feet and shutting his laptop. He knows where this argument is going and he decides to apologize to SFF later._

_"I want you to get up off your no-good ass and study. You wanna shame the entire family by failing your senior year?" Ra'ed hollers, flinging his arm outward dramatically. "Your mother is ill and you_ will _enter medical school and do her proud."_

_Malik snarls and crosses his arm. He knows talking back will only make things worse, but he's never been very good at keeping his mouth shut. "Oh, like the way you did your family proud when you flunked out of med-school? Or did you somehow in the few years get a legitimate degree behind our backs, Ra'ed?"_

_"You animal!" Ra'ed cried out. "How dare you disrespect me like that. I am your father -"_

_"You aren't!" Malik almost screams, his voice cracking as he does. The words are out of his mouth before he can help it. "You've never been a father to me! What is it that you got out of marrying my mother, huh? What is it? Would no other woman have you? So you had to prey on a woman with five children, desperate for a husband to support her -"_

_"Don't talk about your mother that way-"_

_"I'm not talking about her! I'm talking about you! You disgusting excuse for a human being!" he continues, feeling his rage settling heavily in his chest. "You filthy predator. You think you're a good person? Is that what you think? Do you think God will forgive you every time you hit her? Or do you think He isn't watching you when you pull my sister's hair? You call yourself a Muslim-"_

_"This is_ my _house!" Ra'ed's face is red now. "I will do what I please. Women were created to obey their fathers and husbands -"_

_"Oh, yeah. Is that what you think?" Malik interrupts again. "Shahed is ten years old. Who gave you the fucking right to treat her like you do? What about Layan and Luma -they're just turning thirteen? Or Kawthar?"_

_"You think you're a man? You don't understand a thing about life or about faith. You're just a boy!"_

_"I'm more man than you! I look out for my family. Do you? Or is your definition of family so twisted -" he trails off watching Ra'ed shuffle around. It takes Malik a few seconds to realize that the man is searching for something to throw. Before he can get ahold of anything, Malik grimaces. "I'm staying at Yousef's house tonight."_

_Ra'ed doesn't seem to be paying attention so he repeats himself. "I said I'm leaving."_

_With a glower that would terrify just about anybody but Malik, Ra'ed hisses, "If you leave tonight, you're not coming back."_

_This is the very moment which cemented the prospect of murder in Malik's mind. He's never been more sure of anything in his life and yet he's never been more afraid. Murdering Ra'ed is no longer optional -it is obligatory. Leaving would mean that he'd have to leave his mother and sisters alone with that monster and at this point, staying is no longer safe. It's either kill him or be killed and Malik doesn't want to die._

_He estimates that, even when compensating for Ra'ed's weight and build, he must at least be stronger than that man. If he were to tackle him to the ground and choke him to death, he might have a chance, but once he went for the kill, there would be no turning back; he'd have to follow through no matter what._

_Thankfully, there is a decent distance between the two of them, so he is able to get a running start, pushing past his desk chair and dodging the clutter on the ground. He wonders if Ra'ed has always known that Malik would one day try to kill him -maybe his pride blinded him to that inevitability or maybe he simply accepted it. Maybe that's why he doesn't even step out of the way when Marik pounces like a wolf to his prey._

Ra'ed won't get out of this alive. I promise, he won't.

_Ra'ed crumbles to the ground like a mountain, gracelessly and with a deafening thud, and Malik half-heartedly hopes that the marble floor would do him in, but he also knows that thick skull isn't just for show. The roar that escapes Ra'ed's throat unnerves the boy and for a minute he hesitates -he'd be a killer if he succeeds._

_A minute is all Ra'ed needs to turn the struggle in his favor, shoving the boy off of him with no more trouble than if he had been fighting a puppy, making him roll off and slam into the wall._

_"What do you think you're doing, you ungrateful piece of shit?" he bellows, getting shakily to his feet, dusting off his robe and putting his hand to his brow. "Have you lost your mind? Were you trying to kill me? Did you think you would get away with it?"_

_Malik rises as well, taking slow deliberate paces towards his step-father, rubbing his shoulder where it had collided with the wall. "I will get away with it. You deserve to die!"_

_"You can't even sound like a man when you're threatening to kill me! Stop crying!"_

_Malik doesn't even realize up until that point that there are tears running down his face. Perhaps it really makes sense that the tightness in his lungs isn't solely due to his fury; he's terrified, frustrated, desperate. Most of all, he doesn't want to die._

_With an angry and almost animalistic cry, Malik rushes towards Ra'ed, throwing his fist at him with all his weight, feeling the pain as it collides with Ra'ed's solid chest. "You bastard!" Malik yells, trying to keep his voice from cracking as he spoke._

The stairs! _he thinks with a desperate emotion that isn't quite hope, but comes as close as it can. If he could only get Ra'ed over there, there would be no way for him to get out of that fall unscathed. With that single urgent thought in mind, he begins to push their fight in that direction._

_Years of pain, of tears, of strife… it could all be over. His mother would hate him for it, but he wouldn't care. She would finally be safe -and maybe she would find it in her heart to forgive him. His sisters would finally be free to do whatever they pleased without fearing his watchful eyes and his judgemental fists. Malik would take care of all of them as the new man of the house; he would make sure everyone was safe and happy just like they were when his father was still alive. He'd have to get a full-time job, of course, to pay the bills… and his college scholarship wouldn't be able to cover all of his expenses… but he feels, for the first time, that he could really do it._

_"Get out of my house!" Ra'ed keeps howling, his voice echoing throughout the villa. "Get out and never come back!"_

_Malik can see little Shahed poking her head through the door to her bedroom as they pass by; he hates that she had to see him like this, but he'll explain everything later. He knows she's afraid of her step-father. And they're almost at the staircase… It's almost over._

_"Get out! Get out!" Ra'ed screams, his voice now completely indistinguishable from a rabid beast's._

_Almost there…_

_"Get out!"_

_Before Malik can make that final push and end it all, he feels himself lose his footing, the sensation of Ra'ed's grubby fingers still firmly on his chest. The ground disappears from beneath his feet and his hands race to find something to hold on to -something to make this stop happening. His hand feels the smooth polished wood of the railing, only to slip off and grasp desperately at the air._

_This isn't supposed to happen. This isn't supposed to happen. This isn't supposed to happen._

_"Malik!" a tiny voice screams, "No-" Her voice is muffled -no doubt by Ra'ed. It's the last thing Malik hears before his neck crashes into the sharp edge of one of the marble steps…_

_ DestroyerOfWorlds is now OFFLINE _

**_SpookyFingerFoods:_** malik? malik you still there?

* * *

Serenity's auburn hair brushes against Malik's golden helmet as he carries the girl away from Sun. His transmogrification gave him a pair of wings, and there is no way she would have been able to keep up with him on foot.. He doesn't know what's going on and he doesn't really care, but if anything were to happen to Serenity, Lorna would die, and he can't let that happen. He does know, however, that he can't go on like this forever. They have to fight their pursuer eventually.

"Watch out!" Serenity warns, alerting him to a large stone which seems to have risen out of the ground; he's sure it wasn't there before. He stops in his tracks and gingerly sets Serenity down beside him, the two of them facing Sun with their backs flat against the cold stone. She can feel dampness on her back through the fabric of her robes, which isn't surprising since it has since started to rain quite heavily.

Sun looks like a demon with her ink black hair made even darker by the water. She's half-way through her transmogrification, which has grown all over her skin like a disease, making it grey and hard, almost as though she were covered in small flat pebbles, with her pale flesh appearing sparsely through the cracks. "You won't ruin this for me!" she shrieks, her voice deep and gravelly, almost monstrous. "I won't let you ruin me!"

Malik and Serenity don't know what she's talking about and they don't have much time to ruminate on her words before she raises one trembling hand and several stones, each roughly the size of a volleyball, emerged from the earth, leaving craters in their place. She extends her arm abruptly and flings them towards her opponents. Malik grabs Serenity by the shoulders and pushes her down to the ground, causing the rocks to narrowly miss them, shattering against the stone structure behind them.

"Why are you doing this?" Serenity tries to yell over the sound of the wind.

"It's no use. She's hysterical," Malik informed her, watching Sun's body twitch and quiver, her eyes never quite focusing on them, but rather staring off into the distance, searching for something only she can see. Her knees buckle beneath her and she drops to the ground, placing her hands against the ground she had just destroyed. Her back arches, her eyes roll back into her skull, and she lets out a deafening scream without an ounce of humanity in it. The stone is spreading over her body, her skin drying and hardening and her bones rearranging themselves.

"What's happening to her?" Serenity pleads, unconsciously leaning into Malik's armored chest, trying to distance herself from whatever is going on before her.

"That… wasn't her final form," Malik replies weakly, his grip on Serenity tightening as he brings them both up from their crouch.

Arching her neck in front of them and growling erratically, is no longer the human Sun, but what looks suspiciously like a wingless dragon -far too large to be a mere lizard. There are heavy stone scales lining her spine and shielding her powerful legs. She roars powerfully at them, baring two rows of deadly sharp teeth, her crimson eyes flashing menacingly at them. She crawls towards them, her steps sending miniature shockwaves throughout the earth.

"Can we even fight that?" Serenity whispers, pressing her back against the wall.

Malik sucks in a deep breath, clenching his fist and looking at her from the corner of his eye. "If we're gonna get out of here, we're gonna have to. You can fight, right?"

"I think so," she replies uncertainly.

He hesitates, groaning internally. "Good enough. Follow my lead." He steps away from Serenity and breaks out into a run, meeting Sun head-on. She can still control the earth around her and even more dangerously in this form, making it no easy task to get close to her. He nearly trips over a stone that rises more quickly than he can expect it, but ends up hopping over it in a move that looks more rehearsed that it feels. Swerving around another flying rock, he manages to get within a foot of the dragon, bending his knees and taking one large leap to land on her leg.

Serenity, her hands shaking around the silver bow she had timidly taken out, dodges the debris flying at her. Malik is doing a good job of distracting Sun, but he's depending on Serenity to do her part, and she can only feel anxious about playing her role in this. She pulls an arrow frantically from her quiver and nocks it, holding it steadily. Her eyes roam over the struggle between Malik and Sun, watching him grab her neck roughly and pull it up, keeping it steady against her instinctive flailing. He's giving Serenity a chance and she can't waste it.

She looks at the dragon from above the tip of her arrow and carefully aims it at Sun's head. She can't help but let out a shudder at the thought of her arrow meeting its target. This isn't just a dragon -it's Sun… Her arms move slowly and steadily, in contrast with the beating of her heart and the shivering of her lungs, and shutting her natural pair of eyes, leaving only the third one open, she looses the arrow, watching it cut through the air sharply like a bullet and lodge itself through Sun's mouth, at the back of her neck.

Sun's body lurches and Malik nearly flies off. She lets out a pained howl, biting down on the protruding shaft, breaking the hard silver with unnatural ease. Serenity almost lets out a sigh of relief as she opens her eyes again, knowing she hasn't killed Sun, only incapacitated her.

"Now get her in the eye!" Malik orders, clenching his fingers around her scales and closing his legs around her back.

"I c-can't!" Serenity says, her naturally high pitched voice almost impossibly shrill now. "I don't want to kill her!"

"You won't!" he reassures her. "The Inbetween will heal her eventually. We just have to stop her from actually killing us, because I don't think she's going to be as nice as you are. Once she's down for the count, we have to find Lorna."

"Lorna?" she asks earnestly. Nevertheless, she secures another arrow and gets to work, trying to aim at Sun's constantly fidgeting head. The scales protecting Sun's eyes are greatly impeding her, preventing her from getting a clear shot, and she supposes that means they're doing their job. She releases the arrow, watching it soar past Sun's head, narrowly missing Malik's own head.

"Careful with that!" he complains, moving his head down slightly to use the dragon's head as a shield. He's glad Serenity can't see how pale his face is underneath his helmet, because the girl is already a nervous wreck. His heart jumps when he feels the stones beneath him begin to shift. Sun is now walking slowly towards Serenity.

Serenity bites her lip, her confidence shaken from her miss, and at the sight of the dragon growing ever closer, she whispers, "Oh no…" She pulls the arrow back against the bowstring, releasing it in a panic and watching it miss the target by an even greater margin.

Malik tightens his grip on Sun and slams his boot into her hind leg, trying to slow her down. "Concentrate, Serenity!" he begs, repeatedly pounding on the hard scales with his feet, desperately trying to break the stone. His efforts, however, seem to do little outside of making the dragon even more irritable.

Inhaling deeply, Serenity tries to cool her nerves, reaching for another arrow. She fixes it in place and aims again, leaving only the eye on her brow open; it narrows her field of vision but gives her more precision. She remembers that it was this eye alone that gave her her edge in her last fight, so perhaps she needs to keep her other eyes closed -which is easier said than done without the help of her blindfold.

* * *

Where Yami Marik could once hear a great commotion, everything is very silent. He doesn't much care for the quiet, for what sort of pleasant morning would it be without the sound of someone pleading for mercy? It doesn't take long for his morning to take a turn for the more interesting, however.

The soft shuffling of feet comes from behind his door, accompanied by nails scratching desperately against the metal. He grins widely, making his way towards the door to click on the unlock button, letting in his unruly visitor.

Her hair is ruffled and her sweat-soaked clothes are clinging to her skin, but he'd recognize that lost expression anywhere. After all, it was all _Malik_ thought about. What a pathetic person, to love someone who doesn't even remember him. He chuckles to himself and notes that Lorna's face isn't even moving aside from the slight twitching of her lips. Her eyes sockets are also black, like someone had removed the organs from her head and left bubbling and oozing liquid in its place.

He realizes with a smirk that the girl isn't truly there. It wouldn't be the first time he's had to deal with an empty husk, but none have been so wonderfully devastated as her body appears in front of him. She hobbles towards him, her brow tightening, and in a moment of weakness, his legs take him back a few steps.

Before she can make her next move, he hears the unmistakable sound of his sister crying out. His jaw tightens and his hand reaches for his Millennium Rod. "It seems I have more pressing issues to deal with," he informs her, though he doubts she (or whatever is inhabiting her body) is really listening to him.

Lorna juts out her left arm, effectively blocking his way. Her bare skin blisters and morphs like viscous liquid and, curiosity getting the better of him, he sticks around. Her skin begins to leap, stretch and change color until it takes on the form of a duel disk. And now, Yami Marik is truly intrigued. "You want a duel?" he asks. "Depends on who you are and what the stakes are," he says, but he's already formulating his duel strategy.

The husk opens its mouth and black smoke bursts out, nearly obscuring Lorna's face. Its speed shaping a gust of wind that blows back the sheets on Marik's bed and makes his hair stand on end.

"Not much of a talker then, are you?" he replies, fastening his own duel disk. "Good. It's less annoying that way."

Lorna's body begins shuffling her deck, placing it in the disk slot as soon as she finishes. She draws six cards and stares expectantly at him through the dark caverns in her face.

Just as Yami Marik draws his own hand, he spots Ishizu standing in the doorway of his room, concern on her face. "Marik!" she exclaims, getting both his and the husk's attention. "Use your rod!" she orders. He raises his brow. She must know that her real brother isn't inhabiting this body anymore. "You need to declare a shadow game."

He smiles. That certainly isn't what he expected from that troublesome woman, but he is feeling benevolent today, so he grabs the Rod with his free hand and addresses his sister. "Ask and you shall receive, my dear Ishizu."


	37. Lumen IV

Lorna pants heavily, staring up at her two adversaries - _Dark Magician_ and the Guardian. She's cornered; that much she knows. There's no getting out of this, especially in her current state. She can feel a dull pain in her chest starting to well up, accompanied by a burning sensation in her wrists.

It is a struggle to see Kenny clearly, and an even greater struggle to make out the words coming from his lips. Since her fight began, the wind has been picking up speed and its howling has become near deafening. Is this because of her? Was letting Peten through a bad decision? What other choice did she have? Serenity is in trouble, right? Or was that just a lie he told them to gain access to the Solitude? She can only hope that her companions come back soon with Serenity in tow. She doesn't think she can take much more of this.

Somewhere in the fog and the dirt, a light shines and a towering figure appears to _Dark Magician's_ right. If memory serves, Lorna can identify it as _Mystical Elf_. The newcomer places a slender hand on the magician's arm, mouthing several quick and distressed words to him before receiving a curt nod in reply. Within a minute, the two of them make their departure, fading into soft golden light.

"Why are they leaving?" she asks, her voice full of desperation, certain, however, that Kenny won't be able to hear her. Her cousin doesn't seem to be paying attention to her anyway. His head is turned to face his left. He says something again and she half-heartedly wishes she knew what he was saying if only to ease the helpless feeling that she's losing all her senses.

His head turns to her again, but he's not looking directly at her, rather at something in the distance behind her, just beyond the tree she had been flung against. She doesn't have the energy to turn around and see it for herself, but her mind is already creating scenarios where the mysterious creature breathing over her shoulder is grabbing her by the neck and killing her, disassembling her body until nothing recognizable is left. The massive void in her senses is only serving to amplify her imagination, letting it ricochet against the inside of her skull like a pinball, playing on repeat until the idea of a gruesome death doesn't even seem scary anymore -just inevitable.

His face twists in what can only be described as fear, before the wind picks up and the dirt flies into her eyes. She vaguely sees his form pull out long violet twin blades and rush out of her field of vision.

Lorna rests her head back against the bark and sighs in exhaustion. It's not worth it… Even Kenny wants her to die…

"I guess I can't run away anymore… Is this what you were all waiting for?" she whispers to nobody in particular, letting conscious thought slip away from her and giving her senses up to the storm around her.

* * *

Yami Marik and Ishizu somehow manage to lead Lorna's husk of a body onto the roof of the blimp in order to give it the duel it wants. She stands idly shuffling her deck again, while Marik stares on in curiosity. This isn't the same girl that _Malik_ was chasing after; this girl is different, her entire demeanor, almost like she's forgotten how to be human. Of course, this all seems more exciting to Marik.

"A shadow game, you say, Ishizu?" he asks, shuffling his deck as well.

Ishizu can feel a chill run down her spine, and she's not sure if it's because their surroundings are freezing cold, or because her brother seems all too eager to toy with the forces of darkness. Unfortunately, she has a good reason for asking him to invoke such ancient magic, as much as she wishes she didn't. As long as _he_ was the one in control, it meant that that _thing_ wasn't.

"So be it!" he says, not even waiting for a reply. He swiftly inserts his deck into its slot on his duel disk and watches Lorna's husk do the same. "I'll let you go first, _Lorna_."

**Yami Marik: 4000**

**Lorna?: 4000**

She doesn't respond to her own name, not that he expects her to. She draws her first hand, places one card in facedown defense position and activates _Oozaki_ , which he recognizes as a card with the ability to cut down 800 of his life-points.

 _Damn it! And so early in the game._ At least he knows her deck… and it's nothing special. He'll beat her before she can go crying to her friends like she does…

**Yami Marik: 3200**

**Lorna?: 4000**

She ends her move by placing one last card in the field-spell slot on her duel disk -one that Marik doesn't quite recognize -and nor does his duel disk for that matter, as it simply returns a jumble of encrypted characters and symbols in place of its name. It doesn't help that his opponent his completely mute aside from a soft, fleshy pulse that he can faintly hear, further proof that she isn't human.

Whatever the mystery card is, it causes a bright cyan light to emerge from the center of the field, spreading quickly until the two of them are enclosed in what looks to be a ritual circle with symbols he can't understand. The last thing he notes is that a smaller version of the very same symbol that covered the dueling arena was now glowing underneath the loose strands of hair covering her forehead. With an empty look, she indicates to him that it's his turn.

Marik grimaces and turns to glance at Ishizu, whose face is stricken with worry. She clutches the white fabric of her dress just above her chest as she tries to read the situation before her. "Well?" he asks impatiently.

"I've never seen anything like it," she offers hesitantly, watching the husk roll her shoulders around idly like she didn't care much for the side-talk happening before her.

Marik glances back at Lorna, pulling out his rod and trying to invoke its shadow powers, but instead, he feels a heaviness plague him and his head begins to hurt. "It's… not working, Ishizu," he gasps, almost sounding like his level-headed counterpart for a moment. "She's doing something. But… how?"

Ishizu is silent for a moment, and Marik almost starts to believe that the woman abandoned him here, but then he hears her take in a sharp breath, like she had just discovered something. "Of course… that must be it…"

"What?!" he snarls impatiently, his fingers clamped shut around his cards. He can't risk making a move so long as he feels unsure of what was going on, but he can't stay like that forever. He has a dark suspicion that, in spite of the fact that this isn't a shadow game, the circle on the ground was more than capable of punishing the loser in its own way.

"The person you're dueling is not human, Marik. She's death!"

"Yes, I'm quite aware of the fact that she's dead," he growls in disappointment.

"No, Marik. Not _dead._ She's _death_. Her entire physical form is not human; it must be made of powerful dark magic -magic that can even bring back the dead… for a price."

He can't help but direct his thoughts towards Malik when he hears this. That boy is also undead like Lorna, but _unlike_ her, he doesn't seem to have his own body… What makes him so different? Does he have a connection to Marik? Their similar names definitely left room for speculation… Or is it simply chance? Can it be that there's a greater power at work? He doesn't even know where to begin imagining a being capable of bringing back the dead. Not even the _Pharaoh's_ undead soul was granted its own body…

"If she's not human, then what is she?" Well, of course she's not human. Marik can still clearly see her skin shifting like jello, even in the dimly lit hangar.

Ishizu looks unsure for a moment and then speaks again. "An amalgam of demons. Dark creatures that do death's bidding. Her conscious spirit must be elsewhere… and they must be the unconscious manifestation of her spirit, protecting itself."

"From what?" he grumbles. "Last I checked, _she_ came to find _me_. How am I a threat?" He never planned on killing her… not yet, at least.

She shakes her head. "That, I do not know, but you need to be careful. This thing… this seal on the ground. Those are ancient symbols -not ancient Egyptian, but something very close. I suggest you proceed with caution."

Finding his nerve again, he snatches a card from his hand and places it facedown. "Don't tell me how to win my duels, sister." He grins to himself, seeing the _Winged Dragon of Ra_ in his hand. He's already won this duel.

He summons _Drillago_ (1600/1100) in face-up attack position, following this by activating _Dark Pendant_ to raise its attack by 500 points. With 2100 attack points, it is easily the most formidable creature on the field. He quickly directs his monster with a flair of his wrist. "Attack her facedown monster, _Drillago_!"

The machine whirrs affirmatively, bounding towards the projection of her card and drilling down into it with its head. The card flips up to reveal Lorna's monster, a fairy type that resembled a priestess with an ornate emerald headdress and a modest black robe. _The Forgiving Maiden_ (1350/2000) _…_

 _No way!_ he thinks bitterly. _Why does it have 500 extra life-points? Is it because of that field spell? No matter. It has less defense points than_ Drillago's _attack points. It should be dead._

After a few quiet moments, though, the maiden is unharmed, standing tall in front of her master. "What?" Marik chokes out, tightening his grip on his cards. "Your monster should be dead!" He shudders, glancing at the cyan light that envelopes Lorna's monster. It's the same color as the seal, and the monster itself has the seal over its forehead, just like Lorna… _Drillago_ flinches back, leaping away from her monster and back onto Marik's side of the field.

_Well, this duel is going to be one hell of a pain in the ass… Especially since I don't know the extent of that seal's abilities…_

* * *

Zephyr watches as Ophelia screams something at him, only to be drowned out by the wind. It's unnaturally loud and he reckons that the only reason they haven't been dragged into the swirling vortex is the fact that whatever this storm is being caused by, it is likely nothing more than an illusion -albeit quite a powerful illusion.

It seems pointless to fight on when both of them know there is a third force at play here, hindering the both of them and trying to drag them into the rubble. He flaps his enormous wings against the wind and struggles to keep himself steady as he descends to the ground. Ophelia seems to have the same idea, as she braces herself against the stump of a fallen tree and raises her hand.

He nods knowingly and approaches her cautiously. Extending his arm warily and subconsciously anticipating an attack, he allows his opponent to latch onto him and stand upright. In such close proximity, it is possible to understand her when she tells him, "Believe it or not, our goal… was never to destroy you. I was never trying to kill you. Just… capture you…"

"What's happening?" he asks, relinquishing his hold on her and letting her walk on her own. The two decide the best direction to go is towards the exit.

"It's the Warden -"

"And who - _what_ exactly is this Warden?"

"An ancient being… more ancient than the millennium items and almost as ancient as the Inbetween itself. Nobody knows where she came from -only that this, the Solitude, is her domain, and it appeared at the very same time as her," she explains.

Zephyr scratches his chin with his unarmed hand and questions, "How exactly do you know all this?"

"It's my job to know," she replies simply. "Now, we need to get our friends and get out of here before she finds us." He isn't satisfied with such a curt response and still has plenty of questions, but for the moment, they're too short on time, and he has no choice but to let her lead him away.

* * *

Serenity's eye burns as she puts in as great an effort as she can into getting the aim right for this shot. Her hand quivers slightly on the silver arch of the bow, sweat making it hard to keep steady. Malik is counting on her, so she can't miss this time. Taking in a deep breath, she tries to relax her heart and clear her mind. Without overthinking her actions, she releases the arrow, watching it fly directly into the dragon's eye. It makes a defeated whining noise as it drops its head almost limply. Serenity drops her head as well, her hands still shaking even after landing her shot perfectly.

After a few moments of standing uncertainly with her hair and robes billowing around her like a green tornado, she feels Malik's gauntlet on her shoulder. In a reassuring voice he tells her, "Sun is still alive, Serenity. Look."

Heeding his words, she turns her gaze hesitantly back towards the creature, only to find her devolved back to her human form. The arrow is still stuck in her eye socket, but her body on its knees and still holding on to life. She brings her hands up to her head, one placed flat against her forehead and the other gripping the arrow by its shaft.

Serenity winces; she can't watch this.

With a shriek so loud, it manages to reach Serenity and Malik in spite of the winds, Sun yanks the unwanted object right out of her head. There are bits and pieces of her flesh still dangling from the point, her eyeball completely rendered unrecognizable as tiny specks of it are carried off by the wind. The cavity itself begins to bleed profusely, creating a trail of blood, like tears, streaming down her face.

Serenity can feel the bile rising to her throat, but she can't look away from the grisly sight. Sun is still determined, still fixated on ending them, and she only needs one eye to convey that to them. Her skin prickles and morphs as she attempts her transmogrification again, but it's no secret that she's too weak to maintain that form. She raises a shaking hand to telepathically pull a couple of boulders out of the ground, but they get carried away by the wind, crashing into far off trees instead.

Before they can anticipate it, a heavy-looking stone soars straight into Sun's head, knocking her out and causing her to drop to the ground like a ragdoll. From the general direction of that stone, comes someone that neither Malik nor Serenity recognize. He's dressed in a distressed red robe that bares his chest and he has a distinctive scar running down his face from the bottom of his right eye all the way down to his jawline.

He grabs Sun's unconscious body and comes just close enough for them to hear him when he yells, "I need to borrow this one! I hope you don't mind!"

Serenity gives Malik a pleading look as if to say, "We can't let him do that." With a sigh, Malik pulls Serenity into his arms and goes after the mysterious man. They don't have to go far to reach their destination however. They end up at the mouth of a cave and Malik puts his companion down again.

Inside the cave, the man is placing his prisoner down on the ground with her back against the stone. Beside him, curled up in a ball so tiny that they nearly miss her, is a small girl with skin like smooth onyx and a braid curled around her jaw like a cat's tail. She's asleep, which seems odd given the state of the Solitude and how it wailed and moaned around them.

The man turns his attention from Sun to the little girl, picking her up gently and holding her against his chest. It isn't long until he realizes that he has company. He gives the intruders a grin and says, "I guess you caught me."

"What are you doing?" Serenity asks him, the narrow cave making it easier to project her voice to him.

"This cave requires a sacrifice. The only way to leave is by leaving someone behind, and I'm not about to leave this little one here," he explains. "Something's happening here and someone needed to get her out of this place. The Warden's pissed, and anything could happen. I'd leave, too, if I were you."

Serenity gives the girl a wary look. She can't exactly argue with that logic. She can only feel slightly guilty at the fact that it was her own recklessness that put the Solitude in this state to begin with. She's the one who enraged the Warden. "What about Sun?" she asks him. "Isn't there any way to get her out of that cave?"

The man shrugs. "Not a clue, but if she was trying to kill you, then maybe she ought to stay in there for a while." So he'd been watching them? "I only picked her and not one of you two because I figured nobody would complain if a homicidal dragon lady got offed by an angry Warden."

"How do you know the Warden will kill her…" Serenity pauses, unsure what to call this man.

"The name's Sarenen," he tells her, "And I don't know. But I wasn't about to take that chance on myself and Noxie over here." _Noxie_ , as he had called her, shifts slightly in his arms at the sound of her name, but remains asleep nonetheless.

"We should start looking for Lorna," Malik reminds her, taking her attention away from Sarenen.

She nods sourly. "But let's find Ryou first. If the Warden is really dangerous, we can't leave him here." Then, upon noticing the concerned expression on his face, she adds, "Zephyr said Lorna was by the gates, which means it's probably better to find her on our way back. I know Ryou is around here somewhere."

Malik bites his lip to stifle a sigh. He'd really rather find Lorna first, but Serenity is right. If Ryou is defenseless in this realm, then he needs to be found. Besides, he can't risk Serenity going off on her own to find the boy. "But as soon as we find him, we're going back."

"Definitely," she promises.

* * *

Yami Marik and the husk have been at it for the past half-hour. It still hasn't said a word, leaving Marik at a bit of a disadvantage, and that disadvantage is costing him his own life-points.

**Yami Marik: 3200**

**Lorna?: 4000**

He hasn't managed to reduce her life-points at all, nor has he been able to summon his _Winged Dragon of Ra_. The seal she has summoned seems to give each of her monsters a 500 point attack boost, not to mention the fact that he is unable to attack her weakest monsters. His _Drillago_ (2100/1100) is still on the field, along with two face-down monsters; she hasn't bothered to attack him yet, but he knows it's a matter of time before she does.

Currently, she's controlling five monsters, her _Forgiving Maiden_ (1350/2000), _Dunames Dark Witch_ (2300/1050) _, Shining Abyss_ (2100/1800) _, the Fabled Ganashia_ (2100/1000) _,_ and _Dancing Fairy_ (2200/1000) _._ Normally, all of them would stand no chance against his monster, but with that seal on the field, they are more than powerful enough to destroy his monster; the question was: why haven't they?

It's her move and he watches her draw a card. Giving it a short cursory glance, she places it on her duel disk in defense position right next to _Dancing Fairy_. This causes him to nearly choke on his own spit, clenching his hand tightly over his cards -almost bending the thin material. He has a feeling this is related to her seal, and at this point, it's looking a bit too overpowered for his liking.

"She has six monsters on the field? How is this possible?" Ishizu gasps.

Marik lets out an inhuman sounding snarl as he glares into the pits of black on Lorna's face. "Like that thing will say anything to us! This duel was a trap from the very beginning, wasn't it?" The corners of the husk's lips turn up in a leer. "No answer, huh? Why don't you just go back where you fucking came from, you shitstain abomination?!"

Lorna's mouth opens and she lets out one short laugh that sounds so different to Lorna's own voice that the two Egyptians have to do a double take to make sure they aren't just hearing things. It sounds so low and distorted, like it's coming out of a broken speaker.

" _Foolish mortals…_ "

Ishizu looks up at Marik anxiously, but he doesn't look back, his eyes stuck on the creature dueling him. He now knows for sure that this can't, in any way, shape, or form, be Lorna. That girl may be more trouble than she's worth, but she's not… whatever this is…

" _So full of rage… hatred… fear…_ " She isn't even moving her lips; the voice simply comes out through her open mouth.

Ishizu shrieks when someone grabs her arms and pins them behind her back. She cranes her neck and realizes that the one holding her is Sun… or _is she_? Sun's eyes are hollow and black, leaking black gas just like Lorna's, and her face is stoic and stern, devoid of emotion.

" _Hoszthen has been captured by the humans,_ " the second demon announces from behind Ishizu.

For the first time since the beginning of the duel, Lorna's face twists in a grimace. " _He is in no danger from those weaklings. The limitations of this form make us vulnerable. Proceed as you were._ "

Sun nods, however, before she can do anything to Ishizu, her grip weakens and she slips to the ground.

" _Saragyw!_ " Lorna's husk snaps.

" _It is the Departed One… she is… incapacitated._ "

" _Not dead?_ "

" _Not yet…_ " Sun -or rather, _Saragyw_ -says before she loses consciousness completely and collapses at Ishizu's feet.

"Are things not going according to your plan?" Marik jeers, crossing his arms as well as he could under his duel disk.

" _Silence!_ "

Ishizu kneels down slowly, hesitantly turning Sun's body over so that she could further examine the husk. She touches her necklace, calling forth the power and knowledge of her ancestors.

" _Don't touch them!_ "

She falters for a moment, but then hears Marik speak again. "And who's going to stop her? You? The only way you're getting out of this is by surrendering. You're not about to do that, are you?" His words give her the confidence to fully examine the unconscious creature, touching its face lightly, trying to elicit a response from the necklace.

Her eyes are abruptly and overwhelmingly taken over with visions she can neither comprehend nor explain. All she can see is an essence of what she can only call _death_ ; it's coating the floors and everything around her is drenched in it. It's red, boiling and bubbling like lava. The image is replaced with flaming rocks falling to the ground and shattering, hitting people and ancient stone buildings alike. The next image is of a woman with ethereal beauty, clad in pure white silk, standing and watching as a monster sunk his teeth into a human. It's tearing into their gut and pulling out its entrails, and all the woman can do is laugh, her entire body surrounded by a halo of blue. The images are engulfed in black smoke before Ishizu is forced to stop watching.

She feels like she's coming up after having her entire body submerged in cold water when her mind returns her to the reality around her. Panting heavily, she looks over at Marik, whose steely gaze is on her. Lorna's husk is also glowering, and with Lorna's young face and full cheeks, it looks more like an angry and indignant child.

" _Your move, mortal_ ," it tells Marik, turning around quickly to face its opponent.

Yet again, it doesn't attack. What is it waiting for? Marik frowns and draws his card. He fingers the _Winged Dragon of Ra_ card in his hand… He can summon it now, if he wants, but something doesn't feel right. There are a couple of face-down cards in the spell and trap slots on the creature's side of the field, which are making him have doubts. He doesn't want to summon his strongest monster only to have it killed or weakened immediately.

This reluctance… this uncertainty… He doesn't know it. He doesn't want it. No, he's summoning his god monster, and he's showing this freak of nature exactly what happens when someone messes with him.

He chuckles almost hysterically when he says, "You _imbecile_! I have the power of the _gods_! If you thought you could beat me, then you're sorely mistaken! Now, behold! The power of my Egyptian God! Once I recite the ancient text and summon my monster, you're finished!"

"Marik, are you sure -" Ishizu asks, her voice shaking slightly.

He gives his sister a Cheshire grin, and laughs. "Do you think, just because I've allowed you to stay and watch this duel, that you can start to act like a sister? Just shut up and watch, because as soon as I'm done with this thing, you're next!"

She knows that Marik has been taken over by his dark emotions, but the words hurt nonetheless. She can feel her dread compiling in thick layers over her heart as her brother begins to recite the ancient chant.

* * *

It doesn't take Zephyr and Ophelia long to find Lorna; she's sitting in the eye of the storm, in the fetal position with a light blue aura coming off of her body. Her eyes are set on a distant point in front of her, almost like she's in a trance, and she's clearly unaware of her surroundings.

"Lorna!" Zephyr calls out, leaving Ophelia's side to fly over to the girl. That's when he notices it: the blue circle on the ground around her. He stops suddenly right before he can breach its boundaries, examining it from afar. "The Seal of Orichalcos? But… why? How?" Lorna looks almost frozen in time sitting there.

Ophelia looks around the clearing, searching for her partner. "Ken?" she hollers over the sound of the wind. Naturally, she gets no answer. She dashes across towards Zephyr and Lorna. When her gaze meets with Zephyr's, she knows that something is totally wrong. Her eyes wide with alarm, she rushes past the tree that Lorna is resting against to resume her search for her partner.

"Trigger? That you?" a voice calls out to her. Her 'real' name, as it were…

She turns around and finds exactly who she's searching for, looking worse for the wear. He limps towards her with a pained smile on his face. "What happened?" she asks him, her voice rising in pitch due to her rage and desperation. She clutches him against her, supporting his weight as she turned them around, back towards the gates.

"Warden…" he coughs. It sounds wet and painful.

She grits her teeth, glancing over her shoulder. The Warden is nowhere to be seen for the moment, and that's good enough for her. "Why would the Warden do that? She's supposed to leave the living alone."

"She's after… Lorna…" he replies. His legs buckle under his weight and it's all Trigger can do to keep him upright and moving.

She shakes her head at him. "And you actually took her on? Are you out of your fucking mind?" With a sigh she predicts his next words, "She's family…"

* * *

Zorc steps into a clearing, scanning the trees and rubble around him as he moves slowly and methodically. "Come get me, you conniving bitch," he growls to himself. "Get. Out. Here. And. FACE. ME!" He bellows, voice eaten by the wind, feeling his muscles stiffen in anticipation. "COME ON!"

He doesn't remember the last time he's felt so excited, blood rushing in his veins, chest heaving. He has been waiting for her awakening for millennia… and finally, he's at the center of the Solitude's beating heart, ready to snatch its core by its rotting roots and put an end to the Warden that has eluded him for so long. Of course he could have come at any time to end her, but he wants her to see his face when he tears her head from her body. Today is that day.

"Brother, if you're looking for her, then you're looking in the wrong place." The voice that speaks is casual and effortless. It doesn't have to speak over the wind because it can project itself into his mind.

"Zaleon…" Zorc mumbles, turning to face his older brother. "To _what_ do I owe this pleasure? Come to stop me?"

Zaleon smiles underneath his mask. "It's _Peten the Dark Clown_ now."

"Is it?" Zorc smirks. "You didn't answer my question."

The clown chuckles. " _Me_? Stop _you_? Perish the thought, dear brother. I'm here to tell you that the Warden is with my Departed souls right now. One of them was foolish enough to bring a shard of Orichalcos crystal with her into this realm…"

Zorc's entire face tightens for a moment before he hisses. "Lorna!" He should have stolen the damned thing off of her the moment he knew of its existence. Of _course_ that idiot girl would bring the single most dangerous stone in existence straight into the Warden's hands. "That _moron_!"

"My queen's return to earth may be closer than I ever could have hoped. Who could have known that a shard of the Orichalcos still existed out of Dartz's reach…" Zaleon laughs darkly. "Makes my job a lot easier, doesn't it."

"You could bring her back a thousand times, Zaleon," Zorc threatens. "And I would strike her down every single time. This, I promise you."

"Such scary words…" Zaleon notes, his tone remaining light and casual. He raises a clawed hand and waves it in a circular motion. In the next moment, both he and his brother are standing behind a large tree that seems to be protected from the storm by a blue light.

A tall figure in black, made of black and grey wisps, nearly concealed by the wind and dirt, is hovering beside the tree. She snaps her arm back, causing the tree to go flying right through the space between Zorc and his brother, revealing Lorna's small hunched form. The Warden turns her head sharply, casting her sight upon Zorc and if those thin and torn lips could smile, they would have. Her expression makes even Zorc shudder, but he doesn't retreat.

He knows he can't breach the barrier formed by the Orichalcos seal around Lorna's body and every movement the Warden makes only increases his frustration. His eyes meet those of one of Lorna's useless companions. He stands meekly a few feet away, unsure of what to do. There's nothing the boy _can_ do really. He isn't at all powerful enough to go up against something like the Warden.

Lorna doesn't even look like she's paying attention when the Warden reaches for her neck and closes her hand around the delicate flesh there. The girl puts up no resistance at all when she's lifted into the air and rotated slightly to face her captor. It does nothing to remove the dumb, far off look on her face, however. The Warden then lifts her second hand and braces it slightly. Zorc doesn't even bother flinching when she thrusts the hand right through Lorna's chest and closes it around her heart.


	38. Orichalcum I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obligatory Trigger Warnings for things like SUICIDE, GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF DEATH, GENERAL UNPLEASANTNESS

Ryou feels his head throb painfully as he attempts to rise to his feet. He can't see anything, but he knows something is not right. What is happening? Where is Serenity? Is she okay? He hopes to whatever greater power is out there that she's okay. Unfortunately, the powers that be aren't feeling very generous and he can vaguely hear a familiar screech tear its way to him. It has to be nearby because the wind is too loud for it to have come from anywhere else. He feels something akin to ice water trickling down his abdomen just beneath his skin…

 _I told you to leave, Serenity! Why are you still here?_ He's even struggling to put words together in his head -the pulsing is so overwhelming; it just keeps pushing and pushing, almost as though there's a storm in his mind as well as the world around him.

"SERENITY!" he screams. He knows that he sounds hysterical, but it's the only way he'd be able to get his voice loud enough for her to hear while simultaneously managing to ignore the pain rippling behind his eyes with every move he makes.

He pants heavily, hands flat on the ground in front of him, knees quivering, as he tries to crawl in the direction of Serenity's voice. It's eerily quiet aside from the vehement moaning of the wind, making him feel almost like he's losing touch with reality. So long as he goes in a straight line, he can't lose her, right?

Each step is worse than the last. His knees burn as he scrapes them along the ground, the fabric of his jeans rubbing against his skin mercilessly. Everything hurts, but he tries to keep his thoughts singular: Find Serenity. Find her quickly -and make sure she's safe.

How much longer? He doesn't know how much longer he can take the pain. He wants to feel numb, to push it to the back of his mind. It always looks so much easier on TV and in books… They lie so they don't have to keep talking about it, but the pain doesn't go away, it just throbs insistently, begging for his attention. His body wants him to lie down and give in… it'll all be over if he just rests… Ryou feels a sob rise up in his chest and he chokes it out involuntarily.

"SERENITY!" he calls out again, ignoring the instant rush of agony that the vibration of his voice sends to the nerves in his temples.

Before he can choke on the last syllable, there is a strange hand on his shoulder. He still can't see anything. It could be Zorc himself for all he knows, but if it's company, he welcomes it.

"Easy there," a voice calls out. He knows this one. It's not Zorc… but it's also not Serenity.

"Malik?" he grumbles, trying to keep his arms from buckling under his weight.

Malik's hands wrap around Ryou's torso, pulling him upright. "Yes. Just hang in here. I'm gonna get you out of here."

If Ryou could chuckle, he would have. _Well, stranger things have happened._

"Where's Serenity?" he asks. It's easier to get the words out now.

"I… left her over this way. She told me to come find you and then get back to her." Malik's larger silhouette points to the direction that Ryou had just been crawling in. "I think it's because Lorna's hurt." He doesn't even try to hide the toll that thought has been taking on his nerves.

"You… just… left her?" he grimaces, trying not to lose the words in the distressed moans he's been keeping down. He doesn't have the energy to care about the reason; all he can see is Serenity alone in this storm and in pain.

Ryou's vision is blurred but he can barely make out the outline of Malik's mouth, the only feature visible under the golden helmet, frowning slightly. He doesn't answer, interrupted by something neither of them expects. In an abrupt motion, almost like someone pressing stop on its remote control, the typhoon halts, causing all the suspended debris to be flung unceremoniously to the ground in the all the different directions that they had been flying.

"What's going on?" Ryou asks, grabbing the bottom of his dirty shirt and attempting to wipe his face with it.

Malik shrugs. "We need to get to Serenity. Can you walk?"

The pain has considerably dulled now, and while Ryou isn't entirely certain why this is, he doesn't intend to question it. Yet Ryou knows better than to lie about how he's feeling, especially in the Inbetween. "No," he mumbles in a voice so low it barely leaves his throat.

Malik simply nods, grabbing the other boy by his shoulders and hoisting one of his arms over his golden pauldrons. "C'mon. Let's go."

* * *

_"It'll all be over soon… Everything…" a familiar voice coos softly, but there's a darkness to it; something isn't quite right. "If the universe wants to send me a sign… now would be a good time." Then silence for a moment. He doesn't even know why he's waiting. The time has passed, and now is the time for the ending of the most dull and unfulfilling tale in the universe. "Yeah… I wouldn't send me a sign either… I guess… This is it."_

**_I'm sorry, Yoonie… You're on your own for now…_ **

Lorna's eyes are torn open as she sits up in bed. She hesitantly looks around, pupils darting around nervously. This can't be. She wants to burst into tears, but her head is empty and numb.

_That voice… It sounded just like-_

She slides her legs around the side of her the bed and lets her feet touch the cold tile floor. She winces, reaching to touch the familiar black metal frame of the bed and pushing herself up slowly.

This is her room. Untouched. Unchanged. Exactly how she left it.

Well, except for one thing.

Hanging by his neck on a noose and swaying slowly before her, smack in the center of the room, is Zephyr. His eyes are wide open, red and bulging; by his mouth is a trail of spit that seems to have just now drizzled down from his gaping lips. He looks almost like he's staring at her, blaming her for something she can't even comprehend. Her heart leaps out of its chest as she wobbles back, falling into her bed again. He looks like he could wake up at any moment; the thought makes her entire body seize up.

She turns away from his gaze, shaking arms searching around her for her teddy bear - _something_ to make her wake up from this nightmare. She can still hear the roof creaking under his weight… She doesn't want to think about it.

She feels the soft texture of the stuffed toy and brings it into her arms, squeezing it tightly as she shuts her eyes and attempts to get to her feet again. Allowing muscle memory to lead her around and away from the corpse, she slowly moves away from the bed.

Her breath comes out in short reluctant puffs, due in no small way to the fact that she can't stop her body from shaking vigorously. She nearly chokes on her own lungs when she feels something small and dry slither over the skin of her arm. Her eyes fly open and her arms spread, letting the bear drop to the ground in front of her. It's not the same -decaying almost like a human body and covered in worms and maggots. She can't even muster up enough oxygen to scream or cry. It's a dry and empty emotion. She takes in a huge gulp of the cold air in the room, inhaling the rotten stench of death and gagging violently.

Before she can stop herself, her body is twisting around to look back at Zephyr. He's still there, but somehow, his corpse has turned rotated to face her and he swings and sways, still looking at her. "Stop," she commands feebly, her voice coming out in a small croak. He doesn't say anything… but of course he doesn't. He's -

She shudders, rising to her tiptoes and jumping over the bear, trying to avoid the insects that have begun to completely cover the floor around her, their numbers gaining almost exponentially as they crawl out of the stuffed animal in almost impossible swarms. She runs uncomfortably on the tips of her toes through the hallway and towards the living room. "Mom? Dad?" She knows there won't be an answer. She's always alone in her nightmares.

_"Let me out! Let me out!" she screeches, fidgeting, fighting the binds that hold her down. She can't see, and she can barely breathe. Nothing makes any sense anymore. Who's doing this? "I don't want to die like this! Don't let me die like this!"_

_The flames are close now, licking at her skin and eliciting inhuman wails from her bound neck. Almost like a feral animal that has enjoyed the first taste, it creeps further, consuming more and more of her body. "No! NO!"_

**_Save me. Save me. Save me. Save me. Save me. Save me. Save -_ **

Stepping into the living room is like stepping into a completely different world. She can still recognize the room's main features and its outline, which definitely haven't changed, but the entire room is covered in soot and smells like burnt meat. Can it really just be meat, though? She feels her stomach crumple up under her skin. She just _knows_ there's something dead in this room, too…

The ashes in the room seem to converge around a certain point. It's like that one point was at the center of the inferno, and in that spot, she can see a large pile of ashes, black as anything else in the room, but more pungent than anything, and it's laying right where the coffee table would have been, surrounded by half-burnt wooden structures that must have been the couches. She doesn't come any closer, but she can just make out the outline of a human body. There are no distinctive features to tell her who this person was; everything is charred and black.

"Why am I seeing this?" she asks in a whisper. She doesn't know who's listening, but they don't seem keen on answering.

She's hesitant to keep walking, fidgeting nervously with her toes as she looks at all the soot on the floor. It's either get her feet dirty or stay in this room with Zephyr's corpse behind her and that burnt _thing_ in front of her.

Letting her mind run on autopilot for a bit, she walks across the room, ignoring the dust that gets in between her toes and the splinters littering the ground. She turns her head towards the window, raising a hand to her mouth to stifle a weak cough, and opens it up, letting a cool spring breeze in and breathing in the clean air. She feels slightly less ill, but it the persistent feeling of gasses in her gut doesn't let up. She leans out the window and tries to cool off the sweat on her brow. Still, the scent of iron follows her.

_She lets go of him midair and lets the both of them freefall into the congested sidewalk. She can feel her consciousness slip and it's a nice feeling._

_She's been waiting her entire life to give in._

She doesn't even see it at first because her apartment is on the third floor, but in a pool of red on the ground, looking suspiciously like she's sleeping, is Sun. She's on her back, her legs twisted at unnatural angles and her arms flat by her side. Her eyes are shut and her face is peaceful. Lorna half-heartedly wonders if that's perhaps the calmest expression she's ever seen on that woman's face. It does nothing to ease her anxiety however. Had Sun fallen from one of the higher floors? She still doesn't want to think about it. She has to get out of here.

Her stiff unwilling legs are practically moving mechanically at this point, leading her towards the kitchen that opened up into the living room. It has been left mysteriously untouched by whatever had happened to the living room, and for that, Lorna is thankful, but she can't shake the feeling that there are still more horrors to come.

Her body takes her to the kitchen island, where her old laptop is sitting open on some game she stopped playing only a few months before she…

(...died - _I'm dead._ )

She almost ignores it, but something keeps blinking on the screen, distracting her momentarily.

_ DestroyerOfWorlds is now OFFLINE _

She lets out a shuddering sigh. The game isn't supposed to do that -at least, she doesn't think so. She recalls that the game is more subtle about informing you that your chatting partner has disconnected.

_DestroyerOfWorlds… DestroyerOfWorlds… Destroyer…_

Her mind comes up blank. She knows she's supposed to remember something, and it nearly scratches the surface of her mind, but she can't… Something is deliberately halting her train of thought. And just like that, the screen goes black. She reaches out immediately to press the On button again, but flashing lights on the side of the machine tell her that it's out of battery. Her dread buries itself even deeper into her abdomen.

_The ground disappears from beneath his feet and his hands race to find something to hold on to -something to make this stop happening. His hand feels the smooth polished wood of the railing, only to slip off and grasp desperately at the air._

**_This isn't supposed to happen. This isn't supposed to happen. This isn't supposed to happen._ **

_"Malik!" a tiny voice screams, "No-"_

_It's the last thing he hears..._

She exits the kitchen and heads for the front door, bracing herself before opening it. She doesn't want to… but she doesn't want to stay here, so just like tearing off a bandaid, she does it. She keeps her eyes to the ground cautiously and she comes face to face with another familiar pair of dry, bulging eyes. These ones belong to Malik, his handsome features now pale and starting to rot. His lower half was elevated on the steps of the stairs next to the front door, which left his head and torso laying on her welcome mat like a gift.

Some of the dread pooling in her stomach rises to her throat, making her gag for a moment before she realizes there's nothing inside her to come out, yet she gags anyway. Her knees feel weak and, not wanting to let it out on the dead boy, she lets herself stumble over him, feeling even weaker when the bare skin of her feet brushes up against his cold arm by accident.

She grabs the stair railing to steady herself, holding her gut with her free hand. She feels so woozy, unable to see straight, and her stomach is still leaping and heaving. She pushes against her stomach, forcing whatever is inside to just come out, and in a whirlwind, it does. Something black, sticky and dripping starts to come out of her mouth in a long and nearly solid straight pillar. It shot out of her quickly, like a faucet set to the highest setting, and evaporated into black smoke at the ends as it escaped into the atmosphere around her.

The only thing remaining is something very hard in her throat. She chokes on it, coughing desperately, unable to breathe, until she finally ejects it into her upturned hand. It glows dimly against her palm… the crystal fragment that Viola gave her.

"What?" she questions softly, her voice grating against her throat like a car with no tires.

Almost as though someone had given her a violent shove, she feels her body lurch again. In her dizziness, she manages to nearly catch herself, stumbling down a couple of the steps before she feels the battered and fragile stair railings slam into her -a familiar feeling. She sees the ground begin to close in, all a blur, but the clearest thing in her mind now. Her collision with the ground is blunt and unforgiving, but she's alive… at least she thinks she is. She can still think and feel intense pain; she can still reason and feel intense loathing.

Then she's out of her body, back flush against the wall, elevated and staring at her own vulnerable back. The dark hooded figure from her nightmare is back now as well, standing right beside her body. She knows it doesn't have a face; that's because it's not a person -it's something else. It points towards Lorna, at least the Lorna that can actually see it. She lets out a small gasp, unable to look away.

That vague scent of rotting eggs is coming back to her as her body descends slowly to the ground, until she's next to the strange being. The two of them are staring down at Lorna's own struggling body, one with morbid curiosity and the other with no emotion at all.

Lorna looks away for a moment, seeing two unfamiliar people outside, a small girl and someone who seems to be her father. They haven't noticed anything going on inside, yet they look to be alive -something that Lorna didn't think she'd get to see in here. She wants to call out to them, but she has a feeling they wouldn't be able to hear her even if she did.

She senses something forcing her to look back at her own dying body.

 _"You're not dying, Lorna,"_ something says to her. She has a feeling she knows exactly who is speaking.

_Then what? I must be dead or -_

_"The fall isn't what killed you,"_ it clarifies, turning its faceless head towards the Lorna laying face-down on the ground.

_So how did I die?_

The thing doesn't look back at phantom Lorna when it speaks again. _"It would be better… to show you."_

_What?_

She gets a sense of whiplash once she finds that her sight has been limited again to the glass doors of her apartment building and the two people outside. She can barely move her head… she can barely move anything at all. She feels like a victim waiting for her killer to find her. She wants to move, but it's more than just the pain keeping her down. If she's not dead, then who kills her?

Her heart is heavy, but her mind is blank now. She gets the strange sensation that there are two consciousnesses at work in her head -one that knows precisely what's about to take place, and one that doesn't. Her arms move of their own accord, surprisingly unharmed and intact. Nothing is broken; there is only a slight ache in her joints. They press her hands down against the ground and push her onto her knees. Her legs aren't broken either. So why is she so afraid?

Sitting on her knees now, her eyes are scarcely focusing on the two people outside; she can't see the black figure anymore either. Her eyes drop down to the broken railing. With purpose, her hands grab onto one of the pillars, using her knees to keep the rest of the railing in place. The pull as hard as they can, and she can see the wood straining and splintering under the force until it eventually snaps. The burn in her arms is killing her now. Why isn't she dead yet?

**_If I do it now… it'll look like an accident. No premeditation… no guilt._ **

"No!" she tries to say, the jarring realization of what's about to happen hitting her like a ton of cement, unable to control her own body's movements. _It must be a lie… It has to be a lie…_

Lorna grips the broken rod in her hands, feeling the sharp splintered end and for the first time, her heart leaps, straining against her broken ribs. She wants to cry, but that would hurt too much.

**_It's a bit bigger than I thought, but thin enough… It'll go in very easily…_ **

She places the sharp end gently against the place where she can sense her heart race.

**_It's right here… All I have to do is…_ **

_"Don't you remember? You thought about this very moment everyday for weeks…"_

"No… No, no, no… You're wrong!" she can't speak, but nobody would have heard her if she did.

**_One… two… three…_ **

It goes in way too easily, and just her luck, she misses her own heart by a hair… _Just fucking perfect…_

She eventually loses her balance, falling forward and thrusting the rest of the rod straight through her body. She's certain it's at least ruptured her lungs… so it won't be long now…

**_It hurts… IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HURT._ **

**_I'm such an idiot. Such a fucking idiot. I hate it. I hate myself. I deserve this._ **

**_But it hurts… I want it to stop. Please make it stop…_ **

**_-lik, I'm sorry._ **

Looking up, weak and disoriented, she can still see the two people on the sidewalk. She's nearly dead; she shouldn't care, but…

The pair are laughing -not _at_ her she hopes… The young girl jumps up and down and the father looks away for the briefest of moments. It happens so fast. One second the girl is on the sidewalk and the next she's dashing into the street. Her father barely makes it out after her before an oncoming truck rams into the both of them so quickly she wonders if it all really happened. One second later, and the street is completely empty with no evidence that anything had really occurred. Lorna knows they're dead… and in a few seconds… she'll join them…

* * *

Yami Marik grimaces at the creature he's dueling. Something seems off about it. He's just summoned his _Winged Dragon of Ra_ (3100/3100) and yet the girl -the _thing_ -is laughing. Maybe he just needs to teach it the true meaning of fear… The destruction of _Black Pendant_ had taken it down a few life points but it's nowhere near enough if he wants any chance at beating this thing.

**Yami Marik: 100**

**Lorna?: 3500**

" _Winged Dragon of Ra_! Attack _Dancing_ _Fairy_!" he commands. The golden dragon flexes and shifts in response, lazily raising its head to let out an ear-shattering roar, and emitting a white, blinding ray of light that completely envelops the three dancing fairies on Lorna's side of the field. Marik raises his free arm to shield his eyes, waiting for the light to recede, but lowering his hand only the slightest bit to see if the husk's expression has changed.

"Careful, Marik!" comes Ishizu's concerned voice, completely ruining the moment for him.

He shoots a glare in her direction. "Stay out of this, _sister_!" He can feel his head throb slightly out of mental exertion, but he immediately pushes it to the back of his consciousness. He glares at the five monsters still on Lorna's side of the field. He'll tear them down one by one if he has to. There is nothing on its side that can match _Ra_ , even with its absurd power bonus.

The husk raises its head and shoots him a sickly grin. It then lets out a warped sound, perhaps meant to sound like a giggle, and challenges him. " _Is that… **all you've got**?_ " He doesn't give it the privilege of an answer, opting for a steady scowl. " _My move then._ "

**Yami Marik: 100**

**Lorna?: 2600**

The thing draws another card and grimaces slightly before shifting its face back into its finely tuned neutral expression; Marik still catches it though, and elates him to the point of ecstasy. It doesn't have any monsters to replace the one he's just destroyed, which means he's all but got the upper hand. He glances into his own hand and smirks.

* * *

Zephyr takes a step back, from where Lorna and the Warden are hovering. With her hand still wrapped around Lorna's neck, the Warden pulls her other hand out from inside Lorna's chest, pulling something out that Zephyr can't quite make out from where he's standing, but he doesn't need to as it starts to glow bright blue in the Warden's hand. Almost like… No, it probably _is_ magic. The entire storm begins to recede, sucked into that tiny crystal and illuminating it even more than before.

Now, with nothing to obscure his vision, his eyes fixate on the small thing; it's almost mesmerizing, and from the back of his mind, something resurfaces.

Zorc's eyes narrow as he watches Lorna's companion perk up abruptly. The boy casts a nervous look in Lorna's direction before running off elsewhere. _Wrong way if he wants to escape from this hellhole…_ He's only going deeper into the Solitude, which makes Zorc wonder if the boy's sense of direction is truly warped or whether he has something else to find.

When the storm is completely contained inside the small Orichalcos shard, the Warden closes her fist around it and thrusts it back into Lorna's body, right into her heart, where she found it. Just like the storm, small wisps of the Warden begin to flow into the girl through the hole in her chest like dirt to a vacuum cleaner. Once the entire being has disappeared, there's nothing in front of the two brothers aside from Lorna, whose tiny body still floats, in spite of the Warden's disappearance, in the bright light of the Orichalcos seal beneath her.

With wide eyes and a bemused smirk, Zorc watches Zaleon's handiwork unfold in front of him. He knows that, while Zaleon likes to front and act like an ass most of the time, he's lying about this turn of events furthering his cause. Containing the Warden within one small human soul is no small task, and even with the power of that Orichalcos shard, it should be impossible. It's like blowing too much air into a flimsy balloon. At this rate, the girl would be obliterated, with no trace of her existence left. She would be forgotten by all who knew her. A small price to pay for the Warden, of course. The girl is disposable -inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

"Look at me," Zaleon breathes, stepping forward. "Look at me. I want to see it happen."

Zorc grimaces and looks away from the image of his brother, who is beginning to look more like a troll stumbling upon a treasure; he's probably completely forgotten that he's not the only person in the clearing. Zorc watches the girl's body slowly rotate in mid-air, like something dormant inside of her had heard Zaleon's twisted request. Zorc almost feels sorry for her. She probably can't see, feel, or hear any of what's going on right now. She's quite literally a zombie bending to the Warden's will.

"Yes! Show me!" Zaleon cackles, his voice muffled slightly by the mask.

Lorna raises her head and her eyes open to reveal two dark openings where her eyeballs should be, leaking dark matter like smoke from a burning building. _Are her eyes still there behind all that rot or have they eroded as well?_ Zorc asks nobody in particular. Her arms begin to rise slowly within the bounds of the seal of Orichalcos and as she does so, a single silver lance appears in the space between the brothers and the girl. The slender shaft gives off a dull reflection of the scenery around it before it shoots straight towards the girl, piercing right through her chest.

In the next moment, she is screaming, clearly in so much agony that her mind can scarcely comprehend it, and her voice is that same clear, high-pitched chirp that has become so familiar to him. The wind around her, within the bounds of the seal, has started to swirl and He wonders if she's even conscious. Can she see the two dark creatures standing idly by and making a spectacle of her suffering? He admits, while he never cared for her attitude, she certainly doesn't deserve this. She could have been useful to him even… There are still six others, though.

Through her gaping jaw, a giant black mass emerges, bubbling and morphing, living and breathing. It's no surprise to Zorc however; the Warden has to make room in Lorna's frail body somehow, though whether or not the Warden's essence has the same capability to keep Lorna's physical form from being destroyed, as the dark matter does, has yet to be seen, but he doubts it. The Warden may be leagues more powerful than a mortal like Lorna, but underneath the millennia of corruption, the Warden still has the essence of a human.

A hysterical "No!" is heard over Lorna's voice, drawing Zorc's attention to a group of newcomers: the host of his Millennium Ring as well as Lorna's anchor, but the one who cried out is neither of them. Malik is at the front of the group, dashing towards the girl, completely jilting his companions in favor of the one he considers his only friend.

It doesn't take him long to see the seal holding her captive, although it takes all of his energy to try and overlook the spear shooting out of her torso. He lets out a shuddering breath before taking a step back. _Marik can you hear me?_

He gets no response.


	39. Orichalcum II

Ishizu bites her lip, glancing at Sun's unconscious form on the ground. Could she be right? Is Sun's body inhuman? Does it die? Does it even bleed? She watches the husk dueling her brother with narrowed eyes. Is Lorna even in there? She doubts it; judging by what Sun has told her, their spirits must be in the Inbetween -although how these demons have come to use the empty bodies as vessels is a mystery to her. Have they always been there? Are they never safe from this strange demonic possession? It reminds her a bit of the darkness overshadowing her brother, but she can tell it's not quite the same.

It's Marik's main phase now, and his smirk is inhumanly wide and his eyes are lidded, blood vessels straining against the skin around them, which gives her brother the appearance of one who hasn't slept in weeks. "I activate _Common Sacrifice_!" he announces, turning over a card on his disk that had been face-down for a couple of turns now. "Now, I'm sure you're just _dying_ to know what this does, and don't worry, because I intend on delivering!" He cackles as the card's hologram turns up to reveal its image. "With this card, I can use two of _your_ monsters as sacrifices to summon my own monster! So come on out, _Zoa_!"

Just as Marik speaks, he slams a card down onto his duel disk beside his god card. Before the monster materializes, however, two of the husk's monsters, _Forgiving Maiden_ and _Fabled Ganashia_ , are engulfed in white light, completely gone once the light fades. This is the cue for _Zoa_ (2600/1900) to appear, though he hardly looks imposing next to the sheer size of the _Winged_ _Dragon of Ra_ hovering beside it. The giant winged beast doesn't even budge from its place to make room, simply flapping its enormous wings in a disinterested manner.

With three monsters protecting it rather than six, defeating the husk seems more attainable. He still has the problem of the two weakest monsters on the field, _Shining Abyss_ (2100/1800) and _Rogue Doll_ (2100/1000), which both cannot be destroyed unless she has something weaker on the field. Luckily for him, however, there is still her _Dunames Dark Witch_ (2300/1050), which can be disposed of very easily with either of his monsters.

Due the fact that _Zoa_ was special summoned, Marik still has the ability to add another monster to his arsenal, but nothing in his hand is strong enough to stand up to the two monsters on the thing's side of the field, so he decides against it. "Now, it's time for me to take your monster down! _Winged Dragon of Ra_ , destroy her witch!"

The husk raises its arms over its face, anticipating the attack and _Ra_ opens its jaw wide to unleash a powerful blaze cannon, causing the witch to instantly disintegrate. Marik grimaces at the sight of her two monsters. He knows he can't attack either of them -quite an interesting way to exploit the power of that seal…

**Yami Marik: 100**

**Lorna?: 1800**

Marik bares his teeth in a grin. _More than half-way there… And I think I know just the thing to work around those two pesky monsters…_

* * *

Serenity lets out another shriek, clutching Ryou's shoulder more tightly than ever. The boy, still injured, struggles under their joint weight, trying not to collapse in a heap on the ground and dragging the girl with him. Malik seems uninterested in helping them past this point, so he would have to depend on his own strength for the time being, which doesn't feel very abundant considering the vague sense of numbness he still feels pooling at each of his joints. The only thing he can do is make sure he stays completely still, because he doubts he can get back up if he falls.

Malik can feel his heart seizing up, endeavoring to keep up a steady rhythm while his body tries to remember what it's meant to be doing. He doesn't even want to watch, but he can't keep his eyes off of her. Lorna's skin looks pale in the magical light of the Seal of Orichalcos -and as much as he'd like to attribute it to the poor lighting, he can't help but feel like she's gradually appearing more corpse-like the longer she stays in there.

The one noise that accompanies the sound of her screaming is the sound of Peten laughing -his voice growing in volume like it's trying to compete with every other sound in the empty plain. The Solitude suddenly feels very empty. Something brushes past Malik's shoulder and he realizes that every prisoner in this realm is trying to escape.

"Serenity?" a voice softly whispers in the young girl's ear. "Serenity, shh… you'll be okay. It's not real. What you're feeling is not real."

Ryou turns his gaze to the source of the noise and gasps softly. "Mai? You're okay?"

The tall, blonde woman nods gently. "This is where Marik sent me after he… won our duel. I'm still a bit dizzy, but…" She lets out a loud and heavy sigh. "This place is falling apart. We need to get out of here."

"M-Mai-" Serenity struggles with the word, prying her eyes open to look at the newcomer. "I can't… leave… N-Not yet!"

Mai turns her head to look at Lorna; the girl's back is facing them, but she still recognizes her. "The girl who came back from the dead… You think you can help her like that?" she asks, crossing her arms over her chest. "You can barely stand -both of you." And with a cursory glance over her shoulder, she adds, "Can't prince charming over there save her?"

"Malik?" Ryou asks, silently mulling over the possibility in his mind.

His thoughts are interrupted by an incredulous and slightly alarmed "Marik?" Mai's eyes are wide, watching the boy's golden back suspiciously. She finds herself grabbing her two friends and inching back towards the Solitude's gate, which is white with spiritual essence due to the mass exodus caused by the instability of the realm. "We need to get out. Now!"

"Mai! No!" Serenity weakly objects, pushing against Mai's shoulder. "We have to stay… I have to protect her!" she cries, the words spilling out of her lips on an instinct.

"Why?" Mai questions back staunchly. "Says who?" Her ears perk up to the animalistic, shrieking laughter sounding from deeper in the plain -a sound akin to a feverish hyena. Just beyond Lorna, she can see two figures, one steely and solemn, and the other yelling something indistinct to the elevated girl. "Says this asshole?" she murmurs, her eyes following the movement of his lips, trying to make sense of the sounds coming out.

"I- Yes…" Serenity replies, biting her lip.

Mai scoffs and shakes her head dismissively. "Doesn't look like the most reliable person, if you ask me. No, I'm taking you back. Joey would strangle me if he found out I left his baby sister in a place like this." With renewed determination, she grabs Serenity's arm and glares at Ryou to help her push the girl towards the bright light. "Let's get out of here."

Ryou casts a lingering glance towards the spirit of the ring and he almost catches the creature giving him a curt nod before training his eyes on the gateway instead, limping there with every bit of energy he can muster.

Just behind him, a weak and unconscious Lorna has wrapped her fingers around the shaft of her lance and begun to tear the weapon out of her chest. Her face is frozen, her voice caught in her throat -or perhaps gagged by the dark matter that spilled out through her mouth even now. Once the sharp tip is nearly out of her body, the sudden wide part of the tip snags on her skin. Marik watches her with a dry mouth; he can't see everything due to her back being to him, but he doesn't need to see everything to know that the twitching of her body means that she's ripping the lance through her skin, trying to dislodge it. Her small, choked gasps are barely audible now.

It's a sick curiosity that keeps Zorc watching as she finally removes the weapon and drops it at her side with a dull thud. As soon as the hole in her chest is opened, the storm is back, stuck within the bounds of the Seal of Orichalcos, but with every ounce of ferocity that it had previously possessed. With that, Lorna's body begins to rise within the endlessly tall pillar of light emitted by the seal below her. "What's happening to her?" he asks his brother, who is currently standing with his arms spread as if trying to physically embrace the image displayed before him. "What have you done?"

"This is the beginning, Zorc. This is our salvation. Atlantis will be reborn," Zaleon whispers, not even looking at the demon as he speaks.

Zorc raises his eyebrows but lets out a derisive chuckle nonetheless. "Atlantis? What infantile goals you have, brother. And here I thought I was the immature one."

"Infantile?" Zaleon asks, glancing over his shoulder. "Infantile or inspired? Soon we'll be home. Everyone is waiting for us."

"Everyone?" he asks incredulously. "Everyone is dead," Zorc snaps. "And so are you."

Zaleon chuckles, taking his clown mask by the top edge and peeling it off of his face. He lets the thing fall into the dead weeds at his feet. "Inspired, is it not?" He lets out one long sigh, as though letting a pleasant memory pass through his thoughts. "As for your question, Lorna no longer exists. The Warden is now recreating the girl in her image… like a true _goddess_."

"You think too highly of that woman, Zaleon. That's what killed you back then… and now… Well, after ten thousand years, I've found that history tends to repeat itself."

"You've never trusted women, Zorc," Zaleon teases. "Perhaps you need to find yourself a girlfriend."

Zorc snorts and tries to get a good look at Lorna through the storm clouds and debris, but she's too high up, and he doubts he'd see the same girl he met in that morgue earlier that day. He'll never forget those black eyes that bore into his own on that fateful day ten thousand years ago, and he'll never forgive them either…

Malik feels his breath becoming heavy as he tries to make out his friend's figure at the center of the hurricane, but he can't. He knows this feeling well; he's felt it before when Malik summoned the _Winged Dragon of Ra_. His transmogrification grows stronger when its counterpart has been summoned, and it's taking every bit of concentration he has not to give in to the Egyptian god's feral whims.

_Marik, can you hear me?_

* * *

**_Marik… Marik… Can you hear me?_ **

Marik grimaces, putting a hand to his throbbing head. "What?" he hisses, observing the empty air to his left as it begins to display the wispy and translucent image of a boy he knows all too well. "Malik?"

**_Marik, you need to listen to me. Do you know where Lorna is? H-Her body?_ **

He shifts his eyes slightly, centering his vision on the husk in Lorna's image, its skin still bubbling and boiling like a putrid, flesh-colored broth. "Yes. Why don't you turn around and see for yourself," he replies, noting the way the husk cocks its head to the side curiously; he must look like he's speaking to himself -not that he cares what that thing's opinion of him is. The phantom image of Malik turns around cautiously, flinching at the sight of the husk. "What is it you want?" Yami Marik asks him, drawing a card from his deck. "I'm a bit busy here."

The husk hadn't done much after Marik destroyed its strongest monster. It didn't replace it, but it did set down either a trap card or a magic card, which Marik only vaguely registers as a threat to his streak of luck.

**_Do you remember the man who infiltrated your rare hunters and challenged us to a duel this morning?_ **

The thought makes Marik turn up his nose. _Yes_. He does remember… The man had no doubt been after the new third resident of Marik's mind, though his luck ran out quite early. He was not much of a challenge to Marik or his darker side, but it is curious that he managed to get onto Marik's ship so easily; the man must have been hunting them for quite a while. Malik hasn't said much about his identity, but Marik pieced enough together to know that his existence is no coincidence.

**_He gave us a crystal when we beat him -a fragment of a crystal. D-Do you have it on you right now?_ **

"What do you want this crystal of yours for?"

**_That seal must be giving you a hard time._ **

This piques his interest. "Are you telling me that you can get rid of it?"

A pause and then… **_Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying._**

Marik's head turns to the side abruptly, his eyes meeting Ishizu's. "Sister-dearest… Would you mind fetching something for me? Something of _great_ importance?"

Ishizu is so taken aback by the attention he's paying her all of a sudden, so lost in her own thoughts, that she doesn't even understand the words he's saying at first. "Something important?"

He rolls his eyes at her, shifting his weight impatiently. "It's in a velvet pouch -under my pillow."

Ishizu takes a moment to commit the instructions to memory. "U-Under your… Yes. Alright. I'll be back soon."

Her back has barely turned and Marik's voice stops her in her tracks. "Ishizu, there may be others like these two." There are unsaid words weighing down the air between them, and Ishizu nods with understanding before setting off on her task.

**Yami Marik: 100**

**Lorna?: 1800**

Once the woman is gone, Marik's full attention is on his opponent. He yanks out a spell from his hand and smirks. "Your days are numbered, creature. I may not know what this seal of yours does to the loser of the duel, but I know it can't be pleasant." This garners a reaction from the thing, albeit a slight one; its face twitches, its expression still blank and unreadable. However, Marik knows he's managed to jar it. "I'm going to activate a useful spell called _Cross Draw of Destiny_. As you may have guessed, this card requires that we each draw a single card from our hands -"

Just then, the husk butts in with a chained trap card. " _Not so fast! I'm activating_ Solemn Wishes _in addition to your spell. That way, I will gain five hundred life points for every card either of us draws!_ "

Marik tightens his jaw and relaxes it. _It's desperate. It's just desperate. I can do this._ Refusing to acknowledge the husk's trap, he continues his explanation. "If either of us manages to draw a monster card, we can special summon that monster to our opponent's side of the field in defense position -and we gain life points equal to its attack!"

The both of them reach into their decks, pulling out a single card each. Marik takes a look at his card before revealing it -it's just the kind of card he had hoped for. The husk draws as well, its expression indicating that its draw was completely inconsequential. One thousand life points are added to its total life points as a result.

" _I've drawn a monster it seems,_ " the husk drawls in a breathy voice. It turns the card on its side and tosses it through the air at Marik, who deftly catches it between his fingers. The monster is called _Honest_ (1100/1900) and appears to be one of Lorna's pathetically weak fairies that probably has an effect that Marik doesn't plan on taking advantage of. The monster materializes on Marik's side of the field as he summons it, kneeling down with its wings closed over its body defensively.

"Just your luck," Marik states, smirking as he does. "I've drawn a monster as well." He tosses his own monster, _Melchid the Four-Face Beast_ (1500/1200), to Lorna's husk, waiting for it to appear on his opponent's side of the field. It hovers in stark contrast to Lorna's light monsters –a dark fiend monster with four terrifying faces that watch you no matter what angle you stare at it from.

**Yami Marik: 1600**

**Lorna?: 3900**

"And that's not the end of my turn!" he calls out. "I must thank you for the monster you kindly donated! I may not be able to switch it to attack mode this turn, but I can do much better!" His hand is nearly empty now, but he doesn't care as long as he has just the card he needs. "I'm going to sacrifice _Honest_ to summon _Helpoemer_!" With two thousand attack points, it isn't the strongest card on the field, but it's strong enough to destroy _Melchid_. "And now that _Shining Abyss_ and _Rogue Doll_ are no longer your weakest monsters, they can now be destroyed!" He laughs now, his enjoyment of this duel truly kicking in at that moment. "I now transform my _Winged Dragon of Ra_ into _Egyptian God Phoenix_ and activate its effect! By removing one thousand of my life points, I can destroy one of your monsters. And I think I'll choose your _Shining Abyss_!"

**Yami Marik: 600**

**Lorna?: 3900**

With a screech so loud it shakes the entire room, _Ra's_ metallic exoskeleton changes entirely to flames and it releases a torrent of fire that completely engulfs the robotic looking creature, turning it to holographic dust. As soon as the attack is over, _Ra_ reverts to its original form, curling up in front of its master, waiting for his next command.

"And the fun doesn't end there," he announces with an impish leer "Now I'm going to wipe out the rest of your life-points!"

**_Marik, wait until Ishizu brings back the crystal!_ **

"If you think I'm going to wait, then you haven't spent enough time in my head!" Marik snarls at the spirit beside him.

The husk's face droops for a moment, its eyes closed, and, intrigued, Marik stops to see what it's doing. Its shoulders drop and then shudder; it lets its arms hang limply at its side. A small intake of breath is what leads Marik to acknowledge the fact that what the thing is doing now is… _sobbing_. "Are you afraid now, abomination?" he taunts, raising his voice to make sure it hears him. "You should be!"

Its reaction is less subdued that Marik expects it to be, as it raises its head, revealing to him the wet trails going down its face. "I'm sorry, Viola," it weeps -no; _she_ weeps. The voice emerging from those lips much more delicate and feminine than the unearthly crooning that the husk made when it spoke.

"L-Lorna?" he stammers, unsure how to feel about this development. This isn't a husk. This is the girl. "The fuck are you talking about?" he growls, frustrated with the lack of control he feels. He's one command away from winning this duel, but for some reason, he can't even bring himself to say those last definitive words.

The girl's hands go to her face and she rubs her eyes with her knuckles. Her eyes open and they're remarkably human -dark brown and red-rimmed. "Stop killing me. I don't want to die," she utters with bated breath.

**_It knows it's going to lose and it's throwing her under the bus._** Malik whispers, his existence having been all but forgotten by Marik.

"Marik!" a voice cries out, interrupting the strange exchange, and Yami Marik has never been so relieved to see his pain of a sister emerging through the stairwell door. She has her hand wrapped around a small velvet package -the crystal. "I have it -" Just then, Ishizu catches sight of the girl. "Is that…" she doesn't even finish her sentence, taking several hesitant steps towards the two.

"What _now_?" Marik shoots a cross look at his doppelganger beside him.

**_I…_** Malik starts, licking his lips, his eyes never leaving the girl. **_I… Ishizu… Tell her to give the crystal here. As soon as it breaches the seal, it will break._**

"How do you know all this?"

**_T-Trust me. I can't stay here. I have to go._ **

* * *

Malik blinks, finding his surroundings bleakly familiar; he's in the Solitude again, his armor burning his skin. _Ra_ is angry and he can't blame him -not after what Horakhty told him. Whatever has taken ahold of Lorna is an ancient evil that has been trying to achieve godhood for millennia.

In a flash, the circular seal constricting around the body in the sky until there is nothing left to hold the small feminine body in the sky aloft, which means that Marik and Ishizu managed to get rid of the seal on their end. The disappearance of the seal causes the storm to expand once more with mighty gusts shooting out in every direction. The body begins to freefall to the ground, jolting Malik to action, his body moving of its own accord as it dashes to the space that the seal had once occupied. He holds his arms out to catch the girl before something big and heavy slams into him, throwing him a few feet away.

He yelps, pushing against the large body. "Don't be stupid!" the monster growled -Zorc.

"What do you mean?" Malik complained, shoving Zorc away just enough to see Lorna slam into the ground -but it never happens.

How she manages to land on her feet from that height completely mystifies him. It's not even Lorna anymore -not her face, not her body, not her essence. The woman that descends is someone he doesn't know, but one that makes the _Winged Dragon of Ra_ scream against the inside of his skull. She's beautiful in the ethereal kind of way, with pale plump lips and narrow eyes black complemented by long black lashes. Her hair is long and dark, softly moving with the wind. The only thing indicating that this body once belonged to someone else is the fact that this woman is still donning the armor that had previously adorned Lorna's body.

"What did you bastards do to her?" he grunts, dragging himself out of the monster's grasp.

"Your girlfriend's gone," Zorc informs him, as he reaches for the blade on his belt. "Stay back. This bitch is mine!" Malik can scarcely get a word out before Zorc is lunging towards the angelic being.

She raises a delicate hand and signs with a sly smirk on her face. " _Zorc_ ," she says with her hands. Extending her hands to her sides, she lets a pair of abundant wings spread from her back. With a flash, there are several sharp points surrounding her, and it takes only one snap of her fingers for them to come soaring in their direction.

Zorc raises his blade to counter the lances, leaving Malik to fend for himself. The boy winces in pain as they bounce off of the golden metal plating on his forearm. Zorc's dark and muscular hand roughly grasps Malik's raised arm and he hisses impatiently at him. "If you don't want to die, then you'll fight back."

Malik let out a sigh of exhaustion as he got to his feet with some _urging_ on Zorc's part. "I thought this _bitch_ was yours," he murmurs, clenching and unclenching his fingers, testing out his gauntlets. It isn't like he expected to be fighting by the side of Yu-Gi-Oh's main antagonist when he was first thrust into this universe. All the same, he isn't planning on dying, so he'd have to drop his all his reservations for the duration of this fight - _Ra_ certainly isn't complaining so perhaps Zorc has the right idea for now. "Who is this woman, Zorc?" he asks, trying to figure out his next move.

Likewise, Zorc is also holding up his sword defensively and trying to anticipate the woman's next attack "This woman… This _demon_ is the Queen of Atlantis."

* * *

Lorna's life-points hit zero with a satisfying buzzing noise and her body collapses lifelessly at the dueling pedestal. Tentatively, Ishizu comes closer to her, waiting for any signs of movement. With no ancient seals or shadow magic, this duel shouldn't have caused any lasting damage to her; nevertheless, looking at her causes a chill to strike her heart, her heartbeat leaping abruptly before resuming its steady pulse. With the duel over, the pedestal has been lowered, making it easier for Ishizu to climb up and check the girl's vitality.

The startling pound of Marik's heavy boots on the floor echoes in the hangar. He's already turned off his duel disk and put his cards away and is now walking away from the site nonchalantly.

"Marik," Ishizu stops him, unsure of what she wants to say. She only knows that they can't just part ways without at least speaking about this and acknowledging it.

"What do you want?" he asks without turning around. "I have nothing to say to you. This was an interesting… _distraction_ … but I think I'll see what else this place has to offer. I'll leave these two stiffs to you." With that, he steps through the door and leaves Ishizu alone on the roof of the blimp with the two unconscious women.

She frowns and moves to gather Lorna's fallen deck, which was scattered all over the floor when its owner fell. Her mind wanders to the vision she saw when she touched Sun's body. She still doesn't know what to make of it, but it's clear that this is something unrelated to Pharaoh and ancient Egypt; there is another evil at work here and she's unsure if her Millennium item will be able to anticipate the dangers lying ahead.


	40. Orichalcum III

Malik can't feel his face for the chill of the wind blasting into him. He's got his feet firmly on the ground, using Zorc's blade, which his monstrous ally had thrust into the ground to keep them steady in the hurricane. The Warden -or perhaps _the Queen_ -is standing in the eye of the storm, looking entirely unreal by the soft, dim beam of light shining down on her.

"How do we get her to stop that?" Malik complains, trying to elevate his voice above the roaring of the wind. His hair is flapping madly behind him as he strives desperately against the forces coercing his eyelids shut.

Zorc's jaw tightens before he mumbles. "I know a way."

Leaving no time for anything to be said, Malik's feet leave the ground and with great impetus, he's launched across the field, his hands compulsively leaving the hilt of Zorc's sword. His heart nearly flings itself out of his body through his gaping mouth as he watches the Warden's face draw closer to him.

"Malik, focus!" Zorc thunders, taking slow deliberate steps towards the center of the tempest and struggling against the ferocity of the wind.

Shaken back to the present, Malik clamps his mouth shut and just as his body approaches the Warden, he knocks her back with a great blow, celebrating internally as his gauntlet makes contact with her face. Using his target as an anchor, he drops just inside the clearing and lands on his feet beside her. Confused, she drops the storm, halting the travelling winds and the flying debris.

At her right, she catches a jagged sword before it embeds itself in her hip, giving Zorc a menacing glower before summoning two lances at either side of her, making them both jut out aggressively into her attackers, tossing the two of them backwards. However, while this causes Malik to be down for a few moments, Zorc is quick to his feet, dashing straight for her and throwing his weight onto the hilt of his blade, which still protrudes from her body, causing it to bury itself deeper into her abdomen.

Malik is shocked back to awareness when a loud eagle-like screech nearly shatters his eardrums. Battling a mild headache and shaky vision, he drags himself to a standing position and marches towards Zorc and the Warden, clutching his thigh where the lance struck him. The armor had prevented it from rooting itself in him, fortunately, but it still stings like a bitch.

Zorc dips his head, parrying the Warden's clawed gauntlet, grabs her shoulders, and rams his helmet into her chest-plate. Still holding on to her, he shoves her face-first into the dirt below, using his heavy boot to keep her down as he tears his sword out of her body. The point digs into the Warden's neck, held steady by Zorc's gargantuan hands. It all seems far too easy, like she's setting him up for a trap, and maybe he's already fallen for it, crawling deeper and deeper into her web with every move he makes. Would she even die if he chopped the viper's head right now? Or would two more heads grow out in its place?

Bracing for the blow that would end it all, a shout steals his attention. "Zorc, wait!"

Zorc's eyes dart to the side, drilling holes into Malik's head. "What?"

"If you kill her… What will happen to Lorna?" he asks, inching forward, wincing as every step sends currents of pain through his leg. He stops walking for a moment to ease the pressure on his wound, and it baffles him to think that he could fall down a flight of stairs and die, but he can't walk two steps with a two inch deep wound in his thigh. He eventually wills himself to continue moving, cramming the sensation of agony somewhere deep in the far recesses of his psyche.

Scoffing haughtily, Zorc turns his gaze back down to the woman under his shoe, digging his heel into her back slightly, baiting for some kind of indication of her being afraid or in pain, but that would be unlike her, wouldn't it? She doesn't say anything at all. "Don't be coy, your Grace," he sneers, "You're getting your just desserts, so if you have any last words…" He catches himself mid-sentence and lets out a low chuckle before pressing down with the handle of his blade. "I don't make mistakes twice, bitch."

"No!" That blade might as well have punctured Malik's own carotid artery; he feels like he's drowning with the taste of blood at the back of his throat. "What did you just _do_?"

A deafening rumble rocks the earth beneath them, knocking Malik flat on his face and driving the sharp end of a stone into his gash. He cries out, pushing against the ground and moving his torso away from the offending piece of debris.

Zorc steps off of the Warden's still body, keeping his gaze on her as he does. "The Warden is dead; her realm is falling apart," he explains, glancing at Malik. "I didn't think that would actually work," he adds, his deep tone lost among the groaning and growling of the Solitude.

He then turns his head to admire his handiwork, but where there had once been a pale corpse, there is only bloodstained mud. His eyes only narrow in response. "Of course she's not really dead..." he breathes out, grinding his teeth together and bracing his body.

Malik blinks wearily, rising on his hands and knees; his eyes are still brimming with unshed tears from his cut, and the mist in the air isn't helping in the least with his vision. He makes out a bleary silhouette which he guesses is Zorc. One blink and the dark master is leisurely moving around the plain; the next blink and he's staggering backwards with what looks to be his own blade penetrating his chest.

"Holy shit!" Malik exclaims, sitting up and pushing himself to his feet in spite of his wound screaming at him. The ground is steadier now and the rumbling has momentarily ceased. "Did you just- Is that a sword?"

Zorc's head snaps towards the boy with a pitying expression on his face as he gestured towards the ten inch hilt protruding from his body. "What this? Oh, no. I'm just so hardcore I have a second dick sticking out of my chest," he deadpans. "The fuck do you think, ass-for-brains?"

Malik shakes his head in disbelief as he stands up. "You know what? I don't even have anything sarcastic to say in response to that. I'm actually impressed you're still capable of insulting me while having a three foot long sword coming out of your body."

With a shrug, Zorc mumbles, "It's a gift really."

The moment is over as quickly as it began and the sword ejects back out of his body of its own accord, moving only incrementally before reinserting itself with speed so immense it sends him flying back. It removes itself again and finds another point to pierce -in and out, again and again, faster than he can anticipate them, scarcely giving Zorc the time to react to the agony; instead, he can only let out sharp exhalations in time with each jab.

Malik stands in stunned silence. He wants to intervene somehow, but he doesn't even know where to start. "A gift you say…" he finds himself muttering while taking a couple of steps away from the morbid sight. Just because _Ra_ seems to be enjoying Zorc's suffering doesn't mean Malik has to.

Something solid comes in contact with Malik's back, leading him to jump nearly five feet into the air and frantically twist around, only to find a dark winged figure towering over him. He cranes his neck, wincing slightly as recognition dawns on him. _Saturn_. Lorna's favorite monster… but what is it doing _here_?

Malik doesn't know what to make of the creature's motivation, but seeing as it seems to be content with standing there while Zorc is getting shishkebabbed over and over again with his own sword, he doubts its there to help out. He tries to remember everything he knows about fighting -which isn't much, mind you -and remembers his own wings; at least he and _Saturn_ are on somewhat even ground if they're both flying. He wonders if that strange sense of desperation in his head is _Ra_ regretting all of its life decisions which led it to residing in his head.

" _MALIK. YOUR. SIX._ " comes the strained demonic voice he has come to recognize as Zorc. From the sounds of it, the stabbing hasn't quite let up.

He looks behind him, first noting that Zorc has now keeled over, the sword still buried in him. The second thing he sees is the Warden herself, looking even more celestial than before if that's even possible; not even one speck of blood stains the silver armor -no evidence that she had previously been shanked in the throat and the gut. Her hair fans around her body like a mourning veil and her eyes gently stare into Malik's own. Nonetheless, what should have caught his eye is the visible dark energy swirling around her fingertips like several black serpents.

"Uh… nice Warden?" he tries raising his voice at least two octaves. It should be obvious but this doesn't work. "Right. Well, I'm fucked."

Malik shudders involuntarily when a hand touches his shoulder and pushes him back. It's _Saturn_ , positioning himself in between the Warden and Malik, spreading his wings out like a shield. Malik is taken aback by the revelation that this creature is on his side, but he can't really complain, so he simply takes a step back to figure out what to do. He at least knows he can't just hide and let everyone else fight the Warden off -but it just seems like such a good and safe (especially safe) idea.

A gust of wind brushes against the side of his face as something flies past him and _Saturn_ and straight into the Warden, nearly plowing her into the ground; it looks like a yellow blur with a rainbow trailing behind it at first. Only when the Warden picks it up and tosses it back at Malik does he realize that it's another one of Lorna's monsters - _Hoshiningen_ this time. The star-shaped creature squirms against his chest, wrapping its rainbow extremities around his armor, and looks up at him defeated.

He sighs and pries the thing off of his body. "I get it already," he grumbles, "If I die -again -here, though, one of you is telling Horakhty to go fuck herself." In his mind, Ra chastises him. _You can also fuck yourself,_ he mentally chides the Egyptian god.

With less that solid determination, Malik flexes his arms and his metallic wings (much lighter than the name implies) and stands evenly beside _Saturn._ A simple gander to his right shows him that Zorc is still getting his ass kicked (or rather -his chest impaled), which isn't promising for any of the Warden's other adversaries. Of course, it still means that she's not putting all her energy into fighting them.

"Right, _Saturn_. Got a game plan?"

Malik glances uncertainly at the creature, who in turn raises his arms sidelong. Malik looks around expectantly as several lights appear to encircle the Warden, hovering closer and closer to her; rapidly, within each, more anthropomorphic winged monsters appear. He recognizes two of them: _Mars_ and _Venus_ ; the rest must be other _Agent_ monsters that he's never seen Lorna use. Quicker than Malik can blink, all of them, including _Saturn_ , are a blur of feathers and claws.

"Get the gang together and ambush her. Why didn't _I_ think of that?" he remarks in a snide voice.

"Because you still have that dumb crush on Lorna," a gravelly voice grunts from his side. Zorc grits his teeth as he pulls his sword, which seems to have retired from uncontrollably stabbing him, out of his hip. "And you're too much of a pussy to realize she's never coming back. She's not worth getting yourself destroyed."

"Hey, fuck you," Malik scowls. "I'm not the one who just got turned into Swiss cheese here."

Electing to pretend he didn't hear that comment, Zorc rubs his wounds, coercing the healing process to speed up. "The point is you haven't thrown a single punch yet. You're still afraid of hurting her. She's dead for good this time. And this is the woman who did it. Show me why Horakhty chose you. Show me Ra's power!"

"You say she's dead one more time and I'll shove Ra's power straight up your satanic zombie ass."

Ra likes the sound of that, apparently.

Malik growls, a burning and pulsing sensation blooming in his chest, rippling at his fingertips. His head is heavier, like two brains are currently operating inside of it, filling it to the bursting point. Emerging from his mouth against his will is a voice that doesn't belong to him, but to Ra -an earth-shattering roar that halts the strife in front of him.

The Warden stands in the middle with a listless expression, surveying him briefly before making a rapid motion with her fingers. It's not any kind of sign language that Malik has ever seen before, and yet words begin to register in his mind.

_"I AM THE ONLY TRUE GOD."_

Ra obviously disagrees.

With that, her wings begin to beat and she rises into the air, stirring the dead flora beneath her into a frenzy. Naturally -or whatever Malik's brain deems natural at the moment, he finds himself accepting her challenge, and his own pair of wings swiftly elevates him to her level. He feels high, and not just in the literal sense. His mind is cloudy and clear at the same time; he would never attempt to fight this demon in his right mind, but something tells him he'll be able to so he does.

They don't stare long at each other before someone makes the first move, and that person is Malik. With speed and agility he never knew he possessed, he soars to close the distance and bury his gauntlet into her gut, squeezing tightly and using the bundle of flesh he managed to grab as a handle to propel her into the plain below. It's too easy, almost as though she let him do it.

**_Lucky hit,_** Ra voices. **_Keep your guard up._**

Her wings fail her for a moment, but it's insignificant as she's flying back up in a second, extending her limbs until she looks like a pentagram. The unmistakable violet spark of her power appears to be emanating from her body so briefly that Malik nearly misses it spiking and fading. He makes to take advantage of the opening and scarcely manages to parry the spike that drops out of virtually nowhere like a raindrop.

Soon, it's not the only one. Thunder claps from somewhere nearby and the storm in the plain is back, but instead of stinging droplets of rain, hundreds, or perhaps even millions, of silver lances drop from the sky, and it's all Malik can do to keep from being struck by one. Still, he continues trying to close in on her.

An idea dawns on him as he zigzags through the air, causing him to stop abruptly and grab several of the lances descending upon him. With four lances per hand resting between his fingers, he idly avoids the spikes still dropping in ridiculous numbers. He has to wait for the right moment to fling his spears; throwing them haphazardly could cause most of them ricochet against the other spears, and if he's going to have any chance of getting to the Warden, he needs them to hit their mark.

"C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon…" he chants under his breath as he puts as much force as he's able to into his arms and shoots them both forward, one after the other. The first set shoots towards the woman in white, slamming into her and cutting off her concentration long enough to stop the spike storm, but the second set is not so lucky, missing its mark completely due to the sheer haste with which she regains her equilibrium. "Fuck," he hisses, dropping a couple of feet below as she zooms towards him, just barely missing him.

_"Do you even know what happens when you die in the Inbetween?"_

Malik winces when Sun's words pop into his head out of the ashy, monochrome sky. "I won't let that happen to you," he reassures, his line of sight overlapping with the Warden's for a split second on his way down, searching for the chocolate-colored eyes he knows are there.

_"YOU CANNOT DENY ME MY POWER."_

"What?"

_"I SHALL HAVE WHAT IS MINE. THE POWER THAT IS OWED TO ME."_

He tears his gaze away for a moment, looking at Zorc and taking off towards him. "Why does this bitch sound like such a broken record?" There's no sign of the _Agent_ monsters; they must have been decimated by the storm.

Zorc, tugging a spike, that had managed to gouge itself into his eye socket, out of his head with alarming nonchalance, he looks at Malik. "That's because she is." He sticks the spear into the ground with great force. "She's only a shadow of her former self." Zorc swivels to the right and hardens his gaze. "Zaleon…"

"Who?" Malik questions, but his question would have to remain unanswered as he catches the Warden speeding down towards him with her wings drawn back. "Shit."

Zorc paces slowly towards his brother, a nondescript mass of flesh on the ground, beaten and cut down to a literal pulp by the Warden's spears. Zorc still knows his older brother, however, so the dimmest hint of life must still exist inside of him. "You were a fool…" he whispers, unsure if his words are even being heard. "to think she wouldn't destroy even you."

Malik yelps when the Warden's gauntlet pounds into his helmet, sending shock-waves into his head. He holds the sides of his helmet, steadying his vision in time to anticipate another attack and duck, removing his hands to aggressively shove her away from him, but she's back on him with even more ferocity than before. Her face as placid as ever, she grabs his arm and throws him down below her, digging her heels into his chest and moving down before he can regain control over his body and sending the both of them crashing into the earth below.

He senses the ground below him shatter as pieces of stone and dirt dig into his armor and his slowly healing wound, reminding him of just how much it hurt before. The Warden puts one foot on the ground and keeps the other on his chest, firmly pressing him into the crevice the two of them created with their fall. He can tell that it's just the divine armor keeping his rib-cage from splintering under her weight and he'd have to retract everything he'd ever said about Ra if he made it out of this without being erased from existence.

He sucks in a painful breath before focusing his attention on Ra's power. There's no way he's even scratched the surface of what Ra can do -this he knows -and if Zorc is right and this Warden is only a small fragment of the person she once was, she must be weak (if _this_ is her at her weakest, Malik doesn't even want to think about what she'd do with all her power restored).

His irises blaze like red hot flames, staring deeply into her. He opens his jaw as wide as he can and let's out a roar like the one from before, drawing out Ra's power. If there is any way to get out of this, Ra would know, but Ra's power is difficult to channel, even more difficult to use. Unfazed, she carries on observing him, summoning one of her lances and slowly positioning it at Malik's throat. All he wants is to use the power he's been given but he feels like there's a drain stopper at the very end of the flow, making it impossible to reach.

"You know you can jump in anytime you want, Zorc!" Malik cries out, trying to raise his voice in spite of his lungs being compressed.

Zorc looks over and frowns. He extends his wings, flapping them in a miserable manner. They're full of punctures from the Warden's previous onslaught and completely incapable of carrying him anywhere. His body is also still healing from the storm; the sight in his left eye is still completely gone and it will be a while before it fully heals. He drags his sword out of its sheath and rests its tip against the ground. He can see the Warden shift her gaze towards him upon hearing his name and a smile is carved into that perfect porcelain face of hers. She knows he can't take a single step without feeling the marks she made all over his body sing in agony.

In wake of Zorc's silence, Malik cranes his neck more. He doesn't know why Zorc isn't being more helpful, but as long as the Warden is paying attention to Zorc, he's able to think of a way to bring out Ra's full potential. "Really? I thought you were all gung-" She makes her step heavier, causing Malik to gasp. "-ho. About. Killing. Her. You're. Just. Going. To. _Grk_. Sit there. And. Let. Her. Do. This"

Zorc grimaces. Malik only exists as a tribute to the Warden -whether or not Horakhty intercepted that tribute for her own purposes; the fact remained that Zaleon brought the seven departed to this realm as a way to channel power and divert it to the Queen of Atlantis. Having absorbed Lorna's spirit, she's already one seventh of the way there; she now has the freedom to leave her realm and yet she's still here, trying to absorb Malik as well. He can't let that happen. He won't. No matter how weak he is.

A long sigh leaves Zorc's lips and he grips the handle of his sword, letting it dangle in his hand as he watches the Warden scrutinize the boy beneath her with curiosity. She can't truly intend to kill Malik, especially not if he has the power to channel Ra, but this incomplete Warden is still very unpredictable. Zorc isn't sure whether or not to be flattered that, although she's not herself, she still remembers how much she wants to kill him.

He tosses the blade across the plain like a spear and it pierces straight through the Warden's chest, sending her flying several feet back and allowing Malik to finally take a full, unrestricted breath. He sits up, glances back at his savior, and raises his brow. "You could have done that much earlier."

Zorc smirks through his teeth, cautiously taking a few steps forward, his eyes darting between Malik and the Warden; she's still trying to pull the large sword out of herself. "You seemed like you were handling it."

With a scoff, Malik allows Zorc to help him to his feet. He rolls his shoulders and neck before straightening his back and stiffening his posture, like an animal trying to look as large as possible to assert its dominance. "Y'know, for an almighty personification of darkness who single-handedly destroyed Egypt, you're not as badass as I expected."

With a roll of his eyes, Zorc retorts, "It's been three thousand years since I destroyed an entire civilization; my powers have gotten a bit rusty." He grunts and grasps one of the open wounds on his abdomen; they're still bleeding profusely. "Being bound to the Millennium Ring hasn't been great for my health."

"I'd tell you to get out more, but last time you did… Well, you know." Malik lets out a breathy chuckle. Ra growls in his head, causing him to instantly turn his attention back to the immediate threat, which is stalking towards them slowly, stirring up a cyclone for which she is the axis.

"She's hesitating _,"_ Zorc observes. "If she wants us dead then why aren't we?" He searches the queen's dark and stormy glare for an answer. "Could it be that…"

Malik's pupils flash and his head begins to throb.

**_Do not fight me, mortal. Do not refuse the gift I have offered._ **

_I'm not. I can't use it. It's not working._

**_You're fighting my influence. You need to let go._ **

_Hey, if you've got a way to beat this bitch, I'm all ears._

He massages his temples wearily; Ra is shifting uncomfortably under his skin. His golden armor burning itself into his skin, infusing it with pure flames, the raw power of the Egyptian gods. He groans, dropping to his knees. "It's. Too. Much."

Frowning, Zorc digs his fingers into Malik's forearm, tugging him back to his feet and forcing the boy to look up. Ra, never one to bide his time patiently, is forcibly taking control of his host and it's overwhelming him. At this rate, Malik will end up just like Lorna and Zorc would rather not have _two_ ancient entities hell bent on killing him running about.

There's really only one thing he can do. It's only a small sacrifice for the greater _good -_ a term Zorc has never been very partial to. He shuts his eyes and stills his mind, letting his remaining strength flow into Malik in order to placate the dragon inside. It's not like what little power he still possesses would have given him any sort of edge in the battle anyway.

"What are you doing?" Malik struggles to say, his hands unconsciously reaching for something to grab on to. His mind is still reeling; his nerves are like race cars speeding through endless laps all throughout his body. Zorc isn't slowing them down, but somehow Malik feels his own consciousness accelerating to match. It's like free falling through an endless tunnel for eons on end, but knowing that you're perfectly in control.

"I'm giving you a fighting chance," comes the weak reply.

With a clearer mind, Malik glances over at Zorc, but finds someone completely different; this person is much leaner and less grotesque than Zorc, but shares his burnt complexion and leathery wings. Though, somehow, Malik's intuition tells him it's still undoubtedly Zorc.

"You clean up nice, Zorc," he remarks, turning back to face the Warden. _She_ is _hesitating,_ he notes. Drawing power from deep in his being, he holds his arms out in front of him and allows it to pool in the gap between them. Everything else looks dim in comparison to the bright otherworldly light emanating from Ra's energy.

With his power sapped, Zorc kneels on the ground and simply watches. He's somehow lighter, weaker… He clutches bits of grass and dirt for balance and doesn't even recognize the slender yet calloused fingers on the ground before him. "Impossible," he mumbles, clenching and unclenching his fists trying to find proof that the hands he sees don't belong to him.

The Warden cocks her head to the side like a curious wolf as she stands in anticipation. She grins and shuts her eyes, opening her arms wide like she's expecting an embrace.

Once the energy is charged to completion, he holds it up like a ball and then launches it forward. As though he had just turned a faucet on, it spills out of his arms towards the unguarded Warden, opening up like a cone at the end and encompassing her completely.

When the atmosphere's lighting returns to the unnaturally monochrome dimness, the Warden's body is on the ground, seemingly lifeless; yet if this battle taught him anything, it is that nothing is as it seems with this woman. Malik casts a quick look to check on Zorc before approaching the body tentatively.

"God, Lorna…" he chokes, taking his first real look at the Warden's face. There's something about her that infuriates him to the point where he'd just love to tear skin off -or maybe that's just Ra.

Her eyes open, light brown and always shining, like they're laughing at something nobody else can see. With bated breath, Malik simply looms over her, softening his own gaze. He doesn't know when her face stopped looking like the Warden's and started looking like Lorna's, but whoever he's looking at right now, it has to be _her_.

"What's happening to me?"

Her voice is just a whisper, but to him, a whisper is enough. Her expression is afraid and her hair is spread across the dirt like a mop, but it's _her hair_. She fidgets slightly, pushing off of the ground weakly and into a sitting position.

"Shh, Lor'... Steady…" He gingerly places one hand at the small of her back and the other on her forearm, allowing her to use him for support. "I've got you and I won't let anything else bad happen to you, okay?"

She nods languidly, gazing up at him with a mix of admiration and curiosity. "Okay, but… who… are you?"

"What?"

"What's your name?" she asks again, articulating her words very carefully.

It's okay; he heard her the first time.

**_It's a trick. Be wary, mortal. Destroy her now before she realizes you're on to her._ **

_No, it has to be her._

**_Do not be fooled._ **

He decides to shut Ra out.

"Are you okay?" she asks, her hand reaching for his jaw, wiping off a flaky trail of blood with her thumb.

He nods and inhales slowly in an attempt to calm his heart. Everything is so serene in the Solitude that it's almost like they're in another place. A soft breeze ruffles the back of his hair, accompanied by the sound of rustling leaves.

She reaches forward reluctantly and grabs the sides of his battered helmet, raising it over his head and revealing his face. His irises are like a forest, reflecting shades of green and the shadows the sun casts through the canopy of trees above them.

_Leaves?_ He examines Lorna's face thoroughly once more. It's like staring into one of his idealized daydreams; she's so perfect.

"The Warden is dead," he states, ignoring the lost look on her face. "This realm should be self-destructing." According to Zorc, that is. "Why is it still standing? And what are these-"

He blinks and he's back to reality. The forest was never really there and Lorna's eyes are pools of black, pure and untouched darkness. He reaches out to her, sending every ounce of energy in his body to his hands.

Like ink in water, the sky, once grey, is introduced to a new shade; dark clouds swirl around like smoke and lightning strikes a nearby cluster of branches. His newly uncovered hair whips at his face as the wind picks up around them.

The face in front of him is sallow with high cheekbones and full lips, stretched thin in a smile. She raises her hands between them so he can see them and calmly moves her fingers.

_"THE LIGHT IS NOT DEAD. IT YET LIVES ON IN THE WIND. BUT WIND ALWAYS DIES AFTER A STORM, AND WHEN I LEAVE THIS REALM, IT IS NOT I THAT WILL ERASE IT, BUT THE MONSTER WHO LOVES IT THE MOST."_

"What?" he gasps, noting the power growing between his palms. He can't stop it, and he's not sure whether that's because he doesn't know how to or because Ra refuses to stop it. "Oh, no…" he whimpers, realization dripping down his body and freezing his blood.

Her smile quivers and fades; her body slumps against him limply. That's when the earth starts shaking. Rocks clatter against each other and bound effortlessly into the air as though they were pebbles. The lightning strikes again from someplace distant and the flames from the first strike grow closer and closer, dashing across the dry weeds and branching out in several directions. Its growing speed makes it harder and harder to evade with each moment that passes.

Her head is on his shoulder and he can't even feel her breath against his neck. He tilts his head to the side and rests it against her ear. He can't stop it. He can't stop it.

Terrifying booms echo from all directions as gargantuan grey stones drop from the sky. The sky is as black as the void in their wake. It's as if the sky itself is dropping on their heads as the realm tears itself apart. One stone drops perilously close to their heads; Malik holds his breath.

_I'm so sorry, Lor'... I'm so sorry._

Like all the worst endings, this one is accompanied by a blinding white light, the sensation of falling, and a high-pitched scream.


	41. Terminus

"M-t-r Ma-"

_Huh?_

"-aster Marik."

"Who's there…?"

"Master Marik, it's me, Odion. Are you alright? You collapsed."

 _Odion?_ Malik raises a hand to drag it through his golden hair -or rather _his host's_ golden hair. The blood vessels in his head are throbbing insistently, threatening to burst with any sudden movements. Nonetheless, he can't just lie there; he needs to figure out what happened in the Inbetween. He needs to find Lorna… and maybe even Zorc.

He groans, allowing Odion to hold him by the shoulder and help him up into a sitting position. He finds himself in Marik's bed, covered very loosely by the bedsheet, which he throws off of him as soon as he becomes conscious of how hot and suffocated he is underneath it. "Odion, did Marik tell you what has been going on?"

Odion knows who Malik is; he had been the first to realize that a third personality had manifested in his brother's head. His gaze hardens when he realizes just who he's speaking to; it's only a small relief that he's speaking to the one who doesn't harbor a desire to murder him. "He has given me a vague idea of what occurred in the other realm. He says it may have had something to do with _Ra_ sparing me."

Malik stares at him in confusion for a moment before breaking eye contact and looking into his lap with a tired laugh. "Oh, yes. You were unconscious, too, last I saw you." He sighs and says, "Well, things may not have gone according to plan. Do you know what happened to Lorna? Has she also woken up?"

Odion averts his eyes, fixing them idly on the Millennium Rod sitting on the bedside table. "Mai and Bakura are awake as well. As for Lorna, however, I cannot say. The Pharaoh and his friends returned about half an hour ago, but she was not awake then. She is likely in the infirmary."

Malik shudders, his entire body seizing and then relaxing. This is to be expected, of course. She would have to wake up soon, though. That blast should have destroyed them both, but Malik came back, so Lorna will definitely wake up. She has to. "I have to…"

"I would not advise you to visit her, Malik."

"What do you mean?" Malik shot back.

Odion's face is as impassive as ever. Malik doesn't think he's ever seen the man show any emotion at all, and especially not when Malik is in control. It's no secret that Odion would prefer Marik being the only person in control of his own body. "The Pharaoh and his friends still do not trust you. I don't think the girl trusts you either. If she wakes up, she will blame you for this."

"But I-"

The older man decides that it's a good time to drop the subject then, moving on to something else. "The other two -Zephyr and Sun -have disappeared. Their bodies have not been found."

"... What?"

Odion shifts in his seat, placing his hands in his lap and facing Malik again. "Master Marik and Ishizu were the last to see Sun, and the minute they left her alone, she was gone. It was the same for Zephyr. There is no evidence of their existence anywhere on the blimp."

"You don't think they _died_ , do you?" Malik asks, almost forcing the words out of himself.

As complacent as ever, Odion replies, "I'd think you would know better than I would, _Malik_." The last word sounds forced and reeks of animosity.

Malik huffs in disbelief, feeling cool sweat pooling at his hairline and running down his back. Did they truly die in the Inbetween? He recalls the state he had left Sun in -unconscious in a cave with an arrow in her eye -but he can't remember what happened to Zephyr. He can only think of Serenity, who certainly played a role in putting Sun in that cave; there was no way he could let her know about this. It would crush her.

* * *

"I… apologize. There's nothing more I can do," the doctor announces, his voice faltering under Joey's steely gaze.

He balled his hands into fists, watching the doctor recoil and slink back against the wall. "The fuck kinda doctor are you?" he all but howls, making the poor man jump out of his skin. "You gotta make her wake up!"

"Joey, lay offa him," Tristan grumbles. He's sitting at a chair beside the infirmary bed, hunched over, refusing to meet eyes with anyone. "He said there's nothing he can do."

Joey whirls around in a flash, his fingers clamping shut around the top of his friend's shirt, tugging him up so they can face each other. "And you're just okay with this?" His accusation is like a slap in the face. Tristan instinctively turns away.

Lorna's face is a tranquil mask, eyes shut like they've been glued down, her lips dry and puckered. The only color in her face are the dark freckles scattered across her cheeks and nose. Tristan's eyes fall on her small form, covered in a light colored sheet, watching for the rise and fall of her chest. "How can I be? She's not breathing."

The doctor, still standing idly with a distraught and disoriented expression on his face, shuffles towards the door. "I'm very sorry for your loss," he mumbles and Joey's eyes dart to the side, scrutinizing his movements. "I'll just leave now and give you some space."

As the man slides through the door, three other people, Yugi, Téa, and Duke, take his place. They all drag themselves forlornly towards the pair, who are still gripping each other's shirts.

"Is she… going to be okay?" Téa asks quietly, her voice partly hesitant and partly fearful of what she already suspects to be true. "What did the doctor have to say?" Her question, though heard, evaporates in the heavy air as though fallen upon deaf ears. The knot in her chest tightens; anything would be better than the loss of voice in their two most vocal friends. It becomes tighter still when she feels Yugi's hand slip into her own and squeeze.

Duke had known the girl for less than a day, but the looks on his friends' faces made the sight of her unbearable. He feels out of place, having only accompanied Téa and Yugi because he had been offering them support while they waited for a word on Lorna's condition. This is what they had all feared.

"Oh," Téa chokes out, covering her face with her hand. "No…"

"She's not dead."

All eyes are on Joey. He had relinquished his hold on Tristan in favor of leaning over the bed and taking one of Lorna's hands in his own bandaged fingers.

"Don't be a fucking moron!" Tristan snaps, trying to sound forceful and commanding, but managing to sound only angry and hurt.

"She's not," Joey insists, trying to send some of his own body heat into her frozen fingers. "I know it. She can't be. Not yet."

"Don't make this about you!" Tristan argues. "It's not about you! You don't know anything so don't make this worse than it already is! It's over, alright! Just stop!"

Téa sucks in a deep breath and steps forward. "Stop fighting, you two!" she all but screams. In a softer voice she stutters, "I can't take this. Just… please, stop."

"No," Joey says stubbornly. "I can prove it to you."

Tristan groans, tugging on Joey's arm to pull him away from the girl. "No, he can't. I get it - _We_ get it. You cared about her. We _all_ did, but you need to stop making this harder for all of us. Just go to your room and let us just… mourn."

Joey's free hand curls up and digs into the flimsy bed, pressing in so heavily that anyone would have think he was trying to make his hand come out from the other side. "No. She's alive. She told me so herself."

"Joey," Yugi's voice cuts in after what felt like hours of silence. His throat feels scratchy and dry, but he can't let this go on any longer. "That was then. This is now. We have to face the truth. Maybe Tristan's right. Maybe… you need to leave."

Joey recalls the conversation he had with Lorna before the blimp changed its course. She can't die if she's already dead, right? So this must mean that somewhere out there, her soul is out there somewhere and it's trying to find its way back. He has to believe in her. He just wishes the others weren't so quick to give up on her. "Fine." he mumbles, relaxing his shoulders and straightening his posture. He turns around and faces Téa and Yugi, both of whom look uncomfortable under his heavy stare. "If you want to give up on her, then maybe I _should_ leave." He walks briskly across the room, his shoulder brushing against Duke's as he does.

He clings to the walls as he trudges along towards his room, his mind running several possibilities where she'd come back, not alive perhaps, but certainly well. She doesn't deserve this. She never even had a chance. He feels pressure building up in his very core, like magma slowly shifting and churning in his heart. His hand moves of its own accord now, slamming knuckles-first into reinforced aluminium wall to his left.

"Joey," a voice calls out to him, holding on to courage like a little boy -but the worry in it breaks through. "Were you just at the infirmary?"

Before him stands Marik, or rather the one he knows as Marik. His form is rigid and anxious, arms against his abdomen like they're trying to keep something down. This only jerks Joey's molten center into a fury. Marik's back is slammed against the wall before either of them know what they're doing. Joey's eyes bore into Marik's violet irises, his hands clutching bunches of the younger boy's shirt. "You bastard."

"Wh-What are you talking about?" Marik grunts. He looks at the fierce brown eyes, searching for some sort of explanation for this seemingly unprovoked attack. That's when he finds exactly what he's looking for, and his alarmed eyes go dark. "Is Lorna okay?" he asks, his voice down to a guttural murmur.

Joey scoffs, slamming the boy against the wall before unclenching his hands and taking a step back. "Like you don't know…" he snarls before stomping away in the direction of the main lounge.

"Joey, wait!"

He stops in his tracks, waiting for the end of that sentence.

"I really don't know what happened. But I can tell you what happened while you were in Noah's world -"

"Noah's world? You weren't there."

"I wasn't," Marik agrees, then takes a tentative step forward. "And neither was Lorna."

* * *

The control room is dark save for a luminescent fifty-inch monitor mounted on the wall. Feedback buzzes lightly from the wall-speakers, filling in the awkward silence between two very different men, staring each other down -one amused eye versus two deep blues full of irritation.

"What do you want, Pegasus?" the billionaire asks crisply. "It's not exactly a good time."

Maximillion tilts his head slightly with a sly grin, his hands stroking the arms of his chair idly. The one eye twinkles mysteriously when he speaks. "Ah, yes. A death on your blimp. What a positively grim affair! I can only imagine it wouldn't be very satisfying to duel a King of Games in mourning."

Seto inhales a sharp breath and his eye twitches in vexation, the corners of his lips sinking lower and lower with each passing moment. Did Pegasus really think that Yugi would be on his mind at a time like this? "I plan on postponing the semi-finals," he admits, not even bothering to hide the contempt in his voice. " _Unlike you_ , I duel fairly."

Behind him, a woman shifts uneasily, lurking close to the wall and trying not to emphasize her presence. Ishizu frowns her eyes meeting the single brown eye that isn't obscured by Maximillion's long silver hair. The man's eyes immediately shift back to Kaiba.

With a knowing expression, Pegasus mumbles bitingly, "Oh, I'm _sure_ you do, Kaiba-boy." He folds his hands over his lap before speaking more directly, his face and voice now devoid of all humor. "Now, let's get down to business, shall we?"

There is a pause as Kaiba contemplates the idea of ending the call and doing away with the smug face on his computer screen; however, his curiosity gets the best of him. He'd entertain him -for now.

"I'm listening."

* * *

Mai, Serenity, and Ryou sit in silence in the lounge, each looking in a different direction and saying nothing. It's hard to find the words for what they experienced, but they don't need to speak to know that they're all thinking the same thing.

Just when it seems like they'll be sitting like that forever, a disgruntled Joey marches into the room, making a beeline for Ryou. The smaller boy gets to his feet, startled by the intensity in Joey's eyes and the depth of the scowl on his face.

"Is everything alright, Joey?" Serenity pipes up, turning her eyes up to her brother.

He meets her gaze briefly before facing Ryou again. "I need to speak to him. I need to speak to Zorc."

An icy spike slides down Ryou's throat and lodges itself between his lungs. _That name_ is one he has no desire to hear. "You can't, Joey."

It is then that Serenity sees something other than fury in her brother's eyes; it's desperation -the very same kind she saw when Mai was forced into a coma by Marik in her duel against him. He's terrified and deep in her soul, the part that connects her intimately to Lorna, she knows why. It's not that she _can_ feel Lorna -rather, it's that she _can't_. Not anymore.

"What's going on, big brother?" she whispers, searching desperately within her being for a way to make her brother's pain go away.

"Bakura," he speaks unfeelingly. "Let me talk to him. _Now._ "

Her heart flutters anxiously upon hearing this; she hates hearing her act so callous and uncaring. "J-Joey…"

Ryou shifts uncomfortably under Joey's heavy gaze. He feels like a caged animal, unable to escape, waiting to be slaughtered. "I'm sorry. Joey, Z-" He pauses. " _He_ isn't there. I can't find him."

"Can't find him?"

"I can't feel him. He's just gone," he replies, his voice half-uncertain and half-apologetic.

The words drill a hole into Joey's throat, snapping his vocal chords. _Gone._ The only being who could possibly have any idea what happened to Lorna's soul is just… _gone_. "That can't be…" he utters, his shoulders tensing up. "He can't just be gone…"

"Joey!" Serenity cries out, managing to snag her brother's attention. "What's going on?"

His breathing is heavy and broken, like he's forcing himself to breathe through a windpipe full of jagged glass shards. His eyes dart around the room like he's a mouse in a room full of elephants. "I have to go," he moans, turning on his heel and racing out of the room.

* * *

_Is she really…_

**_Dead? Yes._ **

The culmination of everything he had ever felt in the four years leading up to his death is crumpled, balled up into one giant mass, and jammed so tightly into the top of his throat that he couldn't breathe even if he wanted to. Four years he has ( _had_ ) known her. Four years he stayed up well into the late hours of the night so she wouldn't feel the time difference.

It's like he's floating several feet in the air, watching a tragedy unfold before him, and he's the fool standing alone in the final act, trying not to self-destruct. "No…" he breathes, an incoherent sound, but it's all he can say without opening the floodgates.

 ** _For what it is worth. I am sorry for your loss._** This is certainly new -Ra apologizing for anything. Malik doesn't answer.

"It's all my fault," he gasps. He hasn't seen her yet. Yugi and his friends are still huddled around her like gargoyles atop a cathedral, shielding her from evil. It's too late for that now. It's not even fair. _He_ is the one who loved her – _still loves her_. _He_ is the one who has four years of memories with her. _He_ is the one who deserves to be at her side, but he's not even allowed to have that.

"What do you mean?"

He twists around and catches sight of a small girl. "Serenity?"

"How is it all your fault?" she asks and he finds himself unable dispense enough energy to even process her words. "You're Malik, right? Not Marik. And you were in love with her."

"What?" he grunts, feeling the color slide down his face, like paint running down a canvas in pouring rain.

She smiles sadly at him and reaches for him hesitantly, placing a delicate hand on his forearm. "I think she loved you, too. Someone tried to take that away from her, but a feeling that strong doesn't just go away."

"Why are you telling me this?" he hisses. "How do you even _know_ any of this?"

"I had a feeling… And it's stronger when I look at you. I can't explain it."

Malik scoffs. "I'll explain it for you. She hated me."

"Don't say that," she pleads. "Maybe she just didn't understand her feelings…"

"Why do you even care?" he retorts. "Aren't I the _bad guy_?"

She shakes her head. "I don't think you are. You're just trying to do what you think is the right thing."

He sighs and looks up at the ceiling, letting his hair fall away from his eyes. "Why are you even talking to me?"

She bites her lip and retracts her hand. "I want to help you."

He shoots a curious look at the girl. "What about your brother? He's just about ready to kill me on sight."

"I have to do this. I can't let Joey stop me."

Malik can't help the thousand ton block that drops on his chest. "No."

Her hands connect behind her back and she straightens her back, trying to emphasize her height. "I won't let you stop me either. Besides, I think you need me."

It is then that he can't help but think that those earnest green eyes are now the closest he's ever going to get to Lorna. It feels entirely selfish, but his resolve weakens and he nods. "Fine."

The speakers on the wall pop to life all at once, broadcasting loud static before the voice of the Battle City announcer captures their attention.

"Attention, guests. Mr. Kaiba requests your presence in the main hall. Please make your way over at your earliest convenience for a special announcement."

* * *

Odion frowns upon hearing the announcement. He had been laying down in his bed, toying with the Millennium Rod, his fingers tracing the intricately carved orb at the top. Malik seems to be the only incarnation of his brother that has no desire to possess the rod and harness its power interestingly enough.

He drags himself off of the bed and out the door. His boots beat rhythmically against the ground as he watches his shadow glide across the walls.

As he rushes through, he crosses paths with a pair of suits carrying box large enough to fit a couple of grown men and passing through in the opposite direction. They don't even spare him a glance, likely too absorbed in getting whatever that crate contained from point A to point B as soon as possible.

The main hall is occupied by nearly everyone he had encountered on the blimp, and in the center of the mess is Seto Kaiba and his younger brother, Mokuba. They all appear to be waiting for something to happen, giving each other questioning glances, silently sharing their thoughts.

That's when the television mounted on the wall lights up with a face nobody in that room has a desire to look upon. The man grins smugly and waves one of his well-manicured hands towards the camera.

"Good evening, folks! Missed me?"

Maximillion Pegasus. Odion narrows his eyes. He has never met the man and nor does he have any intention of introducing himself, but he has enough sense to know when a man simply exudes dishonesty.

Another scan of his surroundings, tells him that Yugi isn't present, and it strikes him as odd that Pegasus would simply disregard his absence and continue, but Odion finds himself indifferent to the so-called King of Games, although the Pharaoh inhabiting his Puzzle is a different story altogether.

"What a wild ride this has been!" he enthuses, gesturing with his arms like an excited child. "I, of course, got to watch the whole thing from the comfort of my own home and I must say I was quite impressed by the duels, the drama -the _whole_ shebang!"

"Pegasus!" Seto scolds, his brow casting shadows over his eyes. "I believe you have a point to make, or I wouldn't have allowed this."

Odion smirks, crossing his arms. So Kaiba is in on this? It's strange to think that the boy could even stand to allow for Pegasus to show his face at a KaibaCorp event.

"Alright, _alright_ , Kaiba-boy!" Pegasus huffs and then shrugs. "I'm sure you must all be wondering why I've called you all here. You see… KaibaCorp and Industrial Illusions have forged a glorious alliance -"

"-a _temporary_ one -" Seto corrects, looking like the mere idea of an alliance makes him sick to his stomach.

"We've decided to work together on something called Project Ulysses. Sounds exciting, right?" he gushes, his wide grin seeming out of place to an audience who have barely even begun to mourn the loss of a friend. "Now, this is where you all come in. A select few have been chosen to help us set Project Ulysses in motion. I've been able to reach most of the participants, but four particular participants have been quite hard to get in touch with."

Pegasus pauses and the present company begin to exchange glances, each expressing wonder and shock. There is no doubt that everyone in the room is silently speculating as to whether it's possible to be one of the three people chosen by Maximillion Pegasus to participate in Project Ulysses.

"And these are…"

Odion's eyes dart towards the hallway door, which slams shut as Yugi finally shows himself. He carries himself stiffly as he makes his way towards his group, all of whom had also turned around to watch him enter. The Pharaoh certainly knows how to make an entrance…and just in time for Pegasus's big announcement.

It's no surprise that the people indicated by the billionaire are already standing together, glaring at the television screen almost like they already expected their names to be called out.

"Ryou Bakura, Marik Ishtar… and Serenity Wheeler."

It's also no surprise when Joey leaps out of his group and shakes his fist at the announcer. "Hey! My sister ain't goin' nowhere with the likes o' you!" He's like an unrestrained wild animal, thrashing and howling uncontrollably. At some point, Tristan and Duke each grab an arm to stop him from yanking the television off of the wall and throwing it at the nearest person.

"Joey, stop!" The voice is soft, but penetrates the growth of hysteria and tension like a silver bullet.

His sister has stepped away from her group and is staring her brother down sternly. "I have to do this. I'm going."

"Like hell you are!" he argues, struggling against his captors. "You're not goin' anywhere with _that lowlife_ ," He glares at Malik, "or _that slimeball_!" He scowls at Pegasus. "I'm sendin' you back to mom's place as soon as this blimp touches the ground. Do I make myself clear?" He finally shakes off Tristan and Duke and takes a step towards his sister. She stands her ground, but his shadow eats her up completely.

"Wait!" a high pitched voice interrupts the argument. Everyone's eyes turn to Mokuba, who has raised his hand to silence Joey. "That was only three. Pegasus, didn't you say there were four people you needed?"

Pegasus's eyes twinkled mischievously and he shrugged sheepishly, looking like a boy caught in a lie. "I _did_ say four, didn't I? Simple clerical error on my part. The fourth one among you has been pardoned on grounds of… _extenuating circumstances._ " He interlaces his fingers and rests his hands on top of his lap.

"Wait? Extenuating circumstances?" Tristan protests. "Who are you talking about?"

Seto tenses and glowers knowingly at the man on the screen. Pegasus doesn't make simple _errors_ ; no, this man mentioned the fourth person with unabashed intent to shake the group. "Drop it, Pegasus."

Pegasus's mouth forms an O as he places a hand over his heart in offense. "Why, Kaiba-boy. I believe the young man asked me a question. It would be rude not to answer." Seto's spine is now one word away from snapping under the tension. "The fourth participant is the _deceased_ Lorna Beck." It's hard to believe that Maximillion Pegasus is a living, feeling human being at this point. The way he delivers his answer makes it sound like he'd never been happier to remind them of something they'd rather not think about, and nobody can even say a word, immobilized as they are in watching him. "A curious girl… and an even more curious fate, wouldn't you all agree?"

Malik sucks in a shaky breath, and turns his head sharply like something distant to his left has just caught his attention. He can still feel the heat that had radiated from his hands and the weight of her body on him in that penultimate moment. Had he really been the last thing she saw before she died? Had her last memory truly been of Malik killing her?

"If you have nothing to add, then I suggest you leave, Pegasus," the younger CEO snaps, his voice calm and his eyes directed unwaveringly at the television screen.

Pegasus tilts his head up in amusement. "I _do_ have better things to do, so I will take my leave now. Just remember your end of the bargain, Kaiba-boy."

"I will."

"Very well then!" Pegasus says cheerily. "Have a wonderful flight, everyone. And to Ryou, Marik and Serenity: I will give you a couple of hours to get your affairs in order after the blimp lands and then I will ask you to head to KaibaCorp headquarters, where a private jet will be waiting to take you to San Francisco." He smirks and waves his hand at the camera. "Ta-ta for now!" With that, the screen goes black.

Nobody feels like saying anything for a while after he's gone. Everything is just happening too suddenly. Yugi can be found at the far right with his friends, eyeing Marik with suspicion. Whatever happened in the Virtual World can't possibly be the end of whatever he has planned for him and the Pharaoh. It's also clear that he can't be trusted with Joey's sister, but for whatever reason, Serenity is loitering by his side, almost like she's hiding behind him.

"Wherever he's takin' her, I gotta go," Joey finally breaks the silence that had fallen over the group, his voice barely above a murmur. He considers Bakura for a moment, whose lips are moving soundlessly beside Serenity's ear. "I know Bakura's our friend and all, and he's goin' with her, but he's also got that shady side that I don't trust."

"I know what you mean," Yugi replies, but a closer look indicates that it's Yami speaking. "We know Marik is dangerous -he still has _Ra_. What could Pegasus possibly want?"

"Well, whatever it is," Tristan begins, "I don't think it's gonna be sunshine and rainbows. I think we all oughtta go with 'em. Just in case."

"That might be a problem," a small voice interrupts them. They find Mokuba lurking meekly to the side. "I asked my brother about it because I knew you guys would want to go with her, but Pegasus made it clear that he wants them to go alone. Something about there not being enough room for everyone…"

Joey narrows his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean? Pegasus's manor is _huge_. Just how many people is he inviting?"

"I… uh… I dunno," Mokuba stammers, waving his hands in front of him. "I don't know anything about this project and I don't think my brother knows a lot about it either."

"And I'm supposed to believe Kaiba agreed to work together on this thing with Pegasus on blind faith alone?" Joey asked incredulously. "Nah, he's gotta know something."

Mokuba shook his head morosely. "I-I'm sorry. All I know is that Pegasus asked my brother to do something important before we left the island. When I asked Seto what it was, he got very quiet, like he didn't wanna talk about it or something."

"Well, if Pegasus is holding something over your brother's head, you've gotta have some idea of what it might be, right?" Duke presses, crossing his arms over his chest and raising one hand to toy with a strand of his hair.

With a long sigh, Mokuba replies, "I wish. I don't like Pegasus pushing him around like this."

Duke shuts his eyes in contemplation briefly and when he opens them, he has a suggestion. "Guys, I've met with Pegasus before –or amicably, at least –when I pitched him my idea for my game. I think it would be worth it to try and convince him to at least let one of us come along to look after Serenity. I mean, it's a longshot, but I'll see what I can do."

Joey nods briskly. "Thanks, man."

* * *

Ishizu crosses one leg over the other as she watches Seto Kaiba mull over a file on his desk. "So you believe now; is that it?"

He scoffs, but doesn't deny it. "Any luck tracking down Sun and Zephyr?"

She gets to her feet and takes a couple of steps towards him. Her hands trace over a photograph in the file attached to a CV -Sun's CV. "My contacts haven't gotten back to me yet."

He scowls, letting out a low growl as he flips through the papers. "This woman was a fake the entire time she worked here. How could I overlook something like that?"

"She had me fooled as well," she admits, wistfully recalling the woman she called her friend. "I don't even know who she is now…"

He clenches his fists, feeling his face heat up. "To have a woman like that infiltrate my company and steer my blimp right into the Big Five's greasy hands -"

She doesn't let him finish that sentence. "I don't believe the Big Five were the ones who brought her to you. I'm not sure what Sun's motivations were, but clearly, she has done what she came to do or she wouldn't have disappeared like this."

"I told Pegasus I'd agree to his charade on the condition that he let you accompany your brother," he informs her. "I don't know what he's planning, but you need to tell me everything."

She ruminates for a moment, her thoughts still featuring Sun. "I won't let you down."

With a prompt nod, he leans into his microphone. "Roland, please let the guests know that we've just entered Domino City. Make sure they've packed all their belongings and are ready for landing."


	42. Epilogue: Thanatos

_The sky is falling, pieces of it crashing into the ground and shattering like dry mud. Above it, there's only a void as black as death, beckoning him like a flame beckons a moth. If he could only get this damned boulder off of his wing…_

_He spots **her** standing in the middle of the flying debris like an angel of death, her black hair seemingly unaffected by the wind. It curls around her, clinging to her body like it has a mind of its own. Her torso twists around and she meets his eyes with dark slits, narrow in content. She places a finger to pale upturned lips before turning back around and walking away from him._

_"_ _Wait!" he roars, but it's drowned out by a loud groaning that seems to be coming from the sky itself as it continues to disintegrate before him._

**_"_ ** **_NOOOOOOOO!"_ **

_He rubs his head, wincing and staring acutely at his wing. It stings like hell and he can't even get the stone to budge. "It's no use," he huffs and tries to get a good look at the extent of the damage. Perhaps he could… He growls weakly at the thought. No, he can't._

**_"_ ** **_Stay back! Don't come any closer!"_ **

_With a sigh he feels around the edges of his wing. The skin is frayed and damaged where the stone hit. With enough force and a belt to bite, he may be able to simply tear off the part that was stuck to the ground. The thought makes him shudder._

_"_ _Fuck. What am I even afraid of?" he scolds himself, trying to sound more confident than he feels. "It's just a bit of pain. If I can do this and survive…"_

**_"_ ** **_Someone please help… I'm so scared."_ **

_One._

_Two._

_Rip._

_It doesn't even make a sound, which is why he has to look down to make sure the deed is down. The pain comes later. His jaw clamps on his bottom lip and he feels his eyes water. Is this what it felt like when he was human? When he felt pain? He's obviously not human anymore, but he was weak, which meant he was no better, especially with a torn wing._

_He stumbles onto his feet and goes in the same direction he had seen her go. What is she doing? Why didn't she try to finish him off? He's weak and he wouldn't have put up much of a fight if she had tried to come after him and yet…_

_Like a feeling of déjà vu, it hits him -the sinking feeling that is dread. It tugs at his legs, making it hard for him to walk. He feels like he's trudging through mud, trying to run faster but only getting slower the more effort he put in._

_The sight that greets him behind the debris is one that he never expected to see. It's **her** , wings unfurled and hair gently hovering around her and arms outstretched. By her side are several lances, all pointing towards a small girl. The girl looks on like a deer in the headlights, inching backwards towards a dark ravine. The fall would kill her if the silver lances did not._

_As though detecting his presence, **she** turns her head and looks back at him, eyes full of laughter. 'I'm doing this for you, so pay attention,' they say._

_He wants to do something -to stop it. He should be focusing on escaping, but he can't stop looking into the small girl's dark and terrified irises._

_**She** looks back at her victim and brings her hands together, signing something that he can't quite see, not that he truly needs to. He can't bring himself to even watch, but it's over before he can blink. One second the small girl is there and in the next she's gone. His heart leaps into his throat, beating so hard that he can scarcely breathe. And in the next second, **she** disappears as well._

_"_ _No. No. No. Nononono…" he hisses, stepping forward to where she had been standing. "I'm so sorry; I…"_

_The groaning and the storm are so loud that he almost misses it, but it's hard to miss something you're praying for. There she is again, the girl, her skin covered in rashes and singed red, held up by a pair of fragile wings. He can see them tremble as they flapped, and with each tremble, the girl drops and then struggles to make up the distance she lost. Then she's gone again._

_His eyes widen. He can finally move his legs again once he realizes how stupid he's being. His legs are suddenly faster and stronger and before he can even think about it, he propels himself into the ravine after her, diving head-first into a sea of dark matter. He doesn't have time to think about the consequences - he has to find her._

_Her body is even thinner now, her skin and muscles eaten away by the dark matter, but he finds her. He has her in his arms. He can feel it eat away at him as well._

_Trying not to lose momentum, he lets his adrenaline pump him out of the matter and back into the air. His wings are too thick to have punctured in the acid, but a few layers have eroded, making it hard to control them due to the torrent around him._

_Somehow, he manages to get back on solid ground. He stares down at the small creature in his arms. She's barely even human anymore and it makes him sick to his stomach._

_He drops to his knees, placing the girl gently on the ground in front of him and then lets his head hang back as he stares up at the darkness where the sky used to be. "I'll kill you!" he screams out of both pain and loathing. "I'll make you suffer!"_

_With that, he leans over the girl, placing his arms on either side of her. The realm is still going to be destroyed. What a pointless act, prolonging his suffering in order to save a silly girl._

_Her body is still shivering slightly. After all this, she's still not dead?_

_"_ _I was too late," he mumbles to her. Why is he apologizing?_

_The groaning is getting louder and more insistent now, and he can tell that everything is going to come to an end soon. They'll both be dead and there will have been no point in any of this. What a joke…_

_Her face is just a skull now with a thin layer of muscle stretched over it, but her body, though unconscious, seems to have persevered. "You're tenacious, you know?" he tells her and he can't help but smile. He knows he can't look much better than her seeing as his skin was also eroded by the matter. Still, he hadn't been in it as long as her. "I'm sorry we had to die together like this…" No answer. "Lorna, I'm -"_

"Waaaaaah!"

Dartz glances up from a large tome to check out the source of the wailing. He sighs and places the large, leatherbound book on the desk in front of him and stands. As he makes his way towards the door to his office, a knock resonates against the door.

"It's open!" he calls out and after a few moments of the door handle wiggling, the door opened.

Standing in the doorway is Alister with a young girl in his arms, clinging to him like it's the end of the world. "Master Dartz," the boy spoke. "She was asking for you when she woke up."

Dartz smiles gratefully and holds out his arms for Alister to place the girl. She eagerly settles against his chest and places her head in the crook of his neck. "Thank you, Alister. You may leave now." With a nod, the boy turned around and shut the door behind him.

"Dots…" the girl mumbled. "Had bad dweem."

"It's alright, Nox, darling. It's just a bad dream. Nobody's going to hurt you."


End file.
